


Any Duke Will Do

by crystanagahori



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Alternate Universe - Regency, An attempt at historical romance, Duchess Rey, Duke Ben, F/M, Finn/Poe because I can't help myself, Historical AU, If you read Tessa Dare a lot of this will be familiar, Or very unsubtly coaxed engagement, Redeemed Ben Solo, Regency Romance, WILDLY inaccurate history, forced engagement, leia is the best, regency au, seriously don't take this seriously
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-17
Updated: 2020-02-13
Packaged: 2021-02-07 17:09:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 48,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21461566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crystanagahori/pseuds/crystanagahori
Summary: “Did you say something?” Leia asked, and Ben immediately snapped out of it.“No. I am saying nothing until we get there,” he announced. “Honestly, mother. I am not plucking a random woman to be my duchess in Spinster Cove.”“Funny how silence can fill a room so loudly,” Leia mused, a smile playing on her lips. “We shall be arriving shortly. You better start thinking about what you want from a future duchess, because we will not be leaving this place without one.”***In which Benjamin Solo, Duke of Tattoine, chooses Rey Simms, a scullery maid from the Bespin Cove Tea Salon, to be his Duchess.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 85
Kudos: 647





	1. Chapter 1

Someone was kicking Ben’s leg. It was a sharp, consistent kick, the kind that was probably deliberately aimed more to annoy than to do any serious damage. Even in the haze of deep sleep, Ben registered the offensive action on his leg, so he snorted and moved his leg, but then the kicking moved to a dull, gentle thud against his already hammering head. As Ben’s regained his senses and his bearings he realized the thudding was happening all over, that he wasn’t being kicked.

He was being kidnapped.

His eyes flew open and he practically shot out of his seat in the moving carriage, ready to fly in a rage and fight off his would-be attackers.

If one could count one’s parents as would-be attackers, as it happened.

Lady Leia Organa-Solo, the Marchioness of Corellia, stared back at her son, the Duke Benjamin Organa-Solo like she was the higher ranking peer.

“Mother of God,” He said, recognizing the sardonic smile on his mother’s face as she sat primly across him in the carriage, wearing a day dress of deep sapphire blue, her hair perfectly and meticulously put up in a style all her own.

“Mother, yes, of God? Not quite,” she said. Ben instinctively reached for the flask buried in the front pocket of his coat. “If you’re looking for your flask, I have it. Good whiskey, but you know I prefer a cognac myself.”

“What have you done to me?” Ben asked, looking outside the window to determine their location. Not much to be said about rolling green landscape. “You kidnapped me.”

“It’s not kidnapping if it’s your child, and not if it’s for is own good,” she said, looking out the window of the carriage like Ben was now the least interesting thing in the place. Ben’s throat was so dry he thought it was going to crack. His brain threatened to push itself out of his head in pain, and the movement of the carriage was doing very little for his equilibrium. “It is also not my fault that your friend dropped you on my doorstep instead of yours.“

“Hux,” Ben muttered, silently cursing Armitage Hux, Marquis of Arkanis and officially no longer Ben’s friend. The bastard must have thought it would be funny to drop him off at his mother’s doorstep.

“If you’re going to kill me, you might as well do it now,” Ben muttered, leaning his head back and crossing his ankles on the empty carriage space next to his mother’s. She pretended not to see his gigantic boots on the seat next to her. If his mother was choosing her battles, then that meant she was up to something. Curious.

Because of the fact that he was a man, Ben technically outranked his mother, even if she was richer than him and his father combined. Lady Organa-Solo was a Marchioness by Han Solo’s title, bestowed by the king for acts of service during the last rebellion. Leia had served in that rebellion as well, but had no need for titles or estates, as hers came from long before then—she had inherited the Naberrie’s estate, Naboo, by blood, and Alderaan by her adoption. And while all of those lands were still hers, Ben had stumbled into Dukedom by way of his missing uncle, Luke Skywalker, Duke of Tattooine. Luke was presumed dead since his vessel went missing several years prior, and Ben became a Duke by default.

In short, the Organa-Solos were richer than royalty, and were now more titled than most nobles put together. Ben really should be happier.

“I don’t need to kill you. You’re doing a perfectly good job of that yourself,” she pointed out with a hint of acid in her tone. But her expression softened, a rare view. “You haven’t been the same since last year. If you could just tell me—“

“Mother, I will open the carriage door and roll out myself.”

Instead of a biting remark back, Leia chose to lean back against her seat and sigh in exasperation, and Ben’s heart tore in his chest. He didn’t mean to dodge her questions or treat her so badly. In truth, he loved his mother very much. Too much to tell her what had happened, what he had been through. So it festered inside him, manifesting in bouts of rage and sadness, bouts that could only be tempered by alcohol.

It was for her own good, really.

“Where are we going, by the way?” He asked, throwing an arm over his eyes in the guise of very little care. “This isn’t the road to Naboo. Or Alderaan. Or Tattooine.”

Not that Ben recognized the way to any of those places, but when Leia didn’t react, he knew it was true. They were a long way from Coruscant.

“We’re going to Jakku.”

Had Ben managed to drink from he flask, he would have spit the contents out. What on good earth could they possibly have to do in Jakku? It was blasted far, extremely hot, and was famous for…

“You cannot be serious,” Ben shook his head. “We are not going to Spinster Cove. Driver! Turn this carriage around!”

He banged on the ceiling to alert the driver. There was a laugh and a bang back in response. Right away, Ben knew his father was at the helm of the carriage. Kidnapped by his own two parents. How the mighty hath fallen.

“It was your father’s idea,” Leia said brightly, which made Ben roll his eyes and mutter ‘of course it was.’ “He’s visited this place before, during the rebellion.”

“Let me guess, he debauched his way through the cove and thought his son might continue the grand tradition?” Ben snarked, but really, it was his prime form of communication. That and long silences.

“He actually helped the residents escape the Imperials,” Leia shrugged like Han had done those kinds of things all the time. Which, he did. “But we’re making our visit for one reason, and one reason only.”

“Enlighten me.”

“We’re going to find you a bride.”

Ben laughed like it was the most ridiculous thing in the world. Which it was. He may be a Duke, but it was a position that was never really his, one that could be taken away at anytime. Everything he had was a legacy made by someone else, and even with his big boots, he didn’t think he had the strength to carry that burden.

So why would he be ready for the burden of a wife? A family? His parents, as much as he loved them, fought as much as they laughed together, and the fighting was terrifying. His grandfather, the former Duke of Tattooine, was an Imperialist that was rumored to have killed their grandmother just before Luke and Leia were born. Ben didn’t exactly have the greatest of role models.

Then, of course, there was that whole incident with Andrew Tomas Snoke, Earl of Canto, the prime minister. He was Ben’s mentor, the man who taught him everything he needed to know about politics, running estates and the wealth and meaning of his position—things that the Organa Solos didn’t particularly care much for. Nobility to them was a consequence, a means to help other people. Snoke had understood the seduction of power, and taught Ben to harness it.

Until Ben didn’t want to anymore.

“You are Duke Skywalker! You answer to no man, no God and no Queen. You can take anything you want. Sign this deal selling your property to the Queen, and the First Order will control every railway from Coruscant to the Outer Rim! You will be richer, and more powerful than even the Marquess of Corellia. Sign it.”

Ben didn’t know where this inner resolve had come from, but he said no. Snoke had launched at him, scratched him across the face and kicked him out of the First Order Party. He lost all political power, any advantage, and an engagement to the Snoke’s daughter, Bazine.

She’d sneered at him when she was told, tossed her hair and said she wouldn’t want to be associated with him anyway. He was unworthy.

Imagine. An Earl’s daughter, claiming the Duke of Tattooine, the Marquess of Corellia, unworthy.

Ben didn’t disagree.

That was six months ago. Ben had felt aimless and more lost than ever before.

And then there was Rey. Ben couldn’t think about three months ago without thinking about Rey, and that was not a good idea in front of his mother. Not after what the two of them did. The innkeeper nearly had a fit when she saw the state of the bed when Ben left it. Thankfully a few coins slipped into her hand were all she needed to be put in a good mood.

But where was Rey? Nobody claimed to have seen her that night, nobody knew where the maid who ran away went, just that she had.

Ben sighed and closed his eyes. It was hard thinking about her without recalling those dazzling eyes, that soft hair, that warm, hot body pressed against his…

“Did you say something?” Leia asked, and Ben immediately snapped out of it.

“No. I am saying nothing until we get there,” he announced. “Honestly, mother. I am not plucking a random woman to be my duchess in Spinster Cove.”

“Funny how silence can fill a room so loudly,” Leia mused, a smile playing on her lips. “But what’s not to like, Ben? The women there are all eligible and from moderately respectable families. You know your father and I really don’t care about that, but you do."

Ben snorted. Trust his mother to always be a thorn on his side. A loving thorn on his side, but a thorn nonetheless.

"We shall be arriving shortly. You better start thinking about what you want from a future duchess, because we will not be leaving this place without one.”


	2. Chapter 2

THREE MONTHS AGO  
  


Ben sat in the bath, the water still warm and steam rising in the air. His muscles were relaxed, and he felt his body sinking deeper into the bath, his head gently pounding. He hadn’t left Hux’s country estate fast enough to escape a few drinks, and now was paying for it with a headache. He was pretty sure that the heat of the bath wasn’t helping either, but it was cold outside, much too cold for the bath not to be warm. Plus it seemed to dull the pain from the scar on his face, which still felt tender, and slightly raw.

What was he to do now? Go back to Falcon Hall, his tail between his legs like a wounded fox?

Perhaps he should have just signed that deal instead. What was on piece of his uncle’s land compared to the rest of the riches the family had amassed?

You know the difference, his damnable conscience told him. Good people, who had nothing to do with the railways, would have been removed from their homes. From land they cared for for several years now.

Curse his conscience.

Hux thought it was hilarious. As did his mistress, Lady Phasma, although she was a lot more loud about it. Ben wasn’t ready to laugh about it yet, so he’d fled the house, and checked in to the first Inn he found, demanded the best room in the house, food and a bath. Now that he had all three, he still didn’t feel good about it.

So here he was. It felt like he was floating in between sleep and wakefulness, and Ben relished the feeling. Since Snoke removed him from the First Order, the Duke’s life was more aimless, filled with a sense of hopelessness, like a man hanging from a thread with no idea where he would land.

In the distance, he heard the door of his room close, and footsteps in the bedroom. Ben’s body went on high alert. He’d already had his dinner and was taking the bath prepared, he wasn’t expecting anyone in the room, and he highly doubted that this establishment offered a turndown service.

But he stayed quiet and completely still, cursing himself for leaving his pistol with his clothing in the bedroom. He’d trained in the military for God’s sake. He shouldn’t have been this lax. He was in the country, after all.

The latch on the door clicked. Ben reached for the soap. Brilliant notion, Solo, you’re going to really harm your intruder with the English Rose flavor.

“Stay back,” he announced as the door opened, just in time to reveal a woman. A maid from the looks of her dress, and the state of her face. She blinked at Ben in surprise, and he was immediately taken by her eyes. The girl had the eyes of a goddess—bright and inquisitive, even if they were wide in surprise and fear. “Who are you?”

“I didn’t realize the room was occupied milord, I apologize,” she said, quickly turning. Ben didn’t know this at the time, but this was the moment his entire life was about to change. And when you thought about it, life was broken down into a series of choices, ones that you made, ones that you decided against.

And while Ben didn’t have much time, this was a choice he made right away.

“Wait,” he said, and he hated that it made him sound like he needed her to stay, not wanted. Dukes needed nothing. They wanted things, and got them with a snap of their fingers.

She hesitated.

“Why are you in my room?”

“Unkar Plutt is staying in the Inn tonight,” she scowled, as if Ben should know who that was. “It’s…safer to keep my distance.”

“So you walked into the finest room in the Inn, knowing full well it was occupied.”

“If you’re accusing me of machinations to seduce you, my lord, I would like to remind you that our only defense against me is a piece of soap,” she snapped, her eyes blazing with steel. Ben couldn’t help it. He laughed.

“So it is,” he agreed eventually. Ben found himself turning over in the bath, resting his wet, bare arms over the rim of the tub. He could see her more clearly now. Her fave was set in a hard line, her lips thinned in dissatisfaction. Her lovely eyes were distracting, but the rest of her face was beautiful as well—a strong jaw, thin lips, dark hair that was tied back in a neat plait over her shoulder, curling over her breast. She was dressed as a scullery maid, and even from where he was…bathing, he could see she had the hands of someone who worked.

“If I may take my leave, my lord,” she said, bobbing a little curtsy almost sarcastically. Her accent was light and lilting, curving around the vowels like they were one syllable longer, not at all similar to the more clipped accent he was used to from Corellia, where he had grown up.

His chest tightened at the thought of home, of Chandrila Park in Corellia. He felt thousands of miles away, at this lonely little Inn in the middle of Lord only knows where, by way of the Hux estate.

“Stay,” he said gently. When she didn’t answer, he added. “I think I can trust that you will keep my virtue intact.”

“I highly doubt that’s true,” she snorted before she remembered that he was of the Ton, and hastily added, “My lord.”

“Still. One can never be too careful these days. This is a very compromising position you’ve put me in,” he said, his eyes going dark as he focused his gaze on her. “What’s your name?”

“Simms.”

“Lord Ren. Nice to meet you, Miss Simms,” he said, appropriating the name he had used before he was Lord Skywalker. He still didn’t feel like a Skywalker. Not yet. “Please stay.”

“You say that like I have a choice, my lord.”

“As you said, my only means to make you stay is a bar of soap,” he shrugged, leaning back against the rim of the tub and closing his eyes for a moment. He heard a bit of shuffling and rearranging, and Simms was now sitting on a stool near the hub. He opened one eye and closed it again, smiling when he caught her looking at him.

“Enjoying the view?”

“My lord, you really should put on a cowl or something…”

“The water’s still warm, and the night is cold,” he explained. “And I am not inclined to leave yet. Why is this…Plutt so horrible you needed to hide in my room?”

She shifted uncomfortably in her seat, but there was a hint of defiance in her eye, in the way she crossed her arms over her chest.

“It was not fun, being an orphan under his thumb,” Simms said. “I had to do things that I am not proud of. Not to shock you, my lord, but I could have put you in that bath myself with nothing but a strip of cloth to your name if Plutt wanted to target you for thievery.”

“Is that a threat or an invitation?” Ben asked, but his face softened when she didn’t laugh. “I’m sorry you had to go through that. And that you had to see him tonight.”

“Oh,” she said, as if completely surprised that Ben would say something like that. It made him wonder how often she heard simple, kind words like his. In his polite society circles, he heard them all the time, from empty platitudes to overtly forward overtones. Miss Simms seemed to catch on his words, trip over them. “I…thank you. I don’t deserve it. But thank you.”

“Did you escape his clutches?” Ben asked, reaching for the soap and attempted to wash his back. “Is that why you’re in hiding?”

“He kicked me out of his syndicate when I was eight and ten,” she explained, seemingly oblivious to his dilemma. “He’d hoped to sell my virtue to the highest bidder. I beat him to the punch.”

Ben dropped the soap.

“He was a nice enough man. A vicar’s son, went to war,” Her gaze was distant, a small smile tugging at her face. Ben wondered what she was picturing. He imagined a lanky boy too tall, to out of control of his limbs to have ever pleasured her properly, and if there was anything she deserved, it was proper pleasure.

“Plutt kicked me out after. Five years on, I still manage. I have a job, a small life. But it made me realize that I…I am alone in this life,” she said, still staring in the distance, completely forgetting that Ben outranked her by several dozen continents, that they were in a position that was so beyond improper that propriety would not be found even with the clearest of looking glasses. “A chilling thought, realizing that it’s only you in the world.”

“I agree,” Ben found himself saying. “It eats at you some nights, that feeling that nobody in the world can see or understand you.”

She gasped, and turned again, looking at Ben like, oh right, you were right here.

“I confess I cannot relate at all to your situation, Miss Simms,” he said slowly. “However, I do understand what it’s like to feel as if you have nobody whom you can hang on to when you’re exhausted of simply surviving.”

He heard her breath hitch.

“I cannot assure you of much,” he continued. “But one thing. Tonight, at the very least, tonight. You are not alone.”

And, because he might as well, as he was crossing lines all over the place, he reached for her hand. She grasped it, her cool, tiny hand against his larger, warmer one. The touch sent licks of heat shooting up his body, making him pay closer attention.

Ben was certain to go to hell for this, but he pulled their clasped hands close, and pressed his wet lips against the back of Rey’s hand.

“Do I have your consent?” He asked in a low voice, turning her palm in her hand and waiting.

Miss Simms looked shocked. Like her consent had never been asked of her before. And that in and of itself was a tragedy.

“Miss Simms?” Ben asked, looking into her eyes.

“Rey,” she said softly. “My name is Rey.”

Ben turned her hand over in her palm, and her delicate wrist was exposed to him. Gently, gently, he lowered his lips to where he knew her pulse would beat, and kissed the point, sucking lightly on the skin underneath.

Rey, Rey, Rey, he chanted with his kisses. “Let me show you what it should be like when someone worships you.”

His kisses trailed up her arm, until lips met clothing.

“Oh…,” Rey said. “Please.”

“Please what?” Ben asked, his fingers dancing on her wrist.

“Please don’t stop,” she breathed.

“Join me,” Ben murmured into her skin. “The water is still warm.”

And she did. Rey slowly toed off her boots, rolled off her own stockings, setting them carefully inside. Then, with bare toes, she placed a hand on the side of the tub and climbed in, lifting her skirts just enough that he caught glimpses of her ankles, sending a thrill shooting up his body.

Rey stood up over him in the tub, fully clothed and partially exposed, and it was the most erotic sight Ben had ever seen. Contrary to her belief, his experience was limited to a few encounters with women who charged him for their expertise, and one young widow who thought it was hilarious when Ben’s ears grew red.

But he was always a fast learner.

“Take off the dress,” he said gently, reaching up to let his hand dance along the sides of her thighs, underneath the skirt, under her chemise. “We wouldn’t want you to get wet.”

“I rather thought that was the point, my lord,” Rey smirked, taking off her dress, leaving her in only the most thin of chemises, a little confection of white muslin that let him see…everything. Her neck was smooth and sloped over a small chest, just enough that he still liked it. Her dark nipples were pebbled against the fabric of the muslin, her chest rising and falling to Rey’s quickening breath.

Ben sat up higher to cup her breasts with his hands, moving his arms down her stomach, tracing the shape if her waist, feeling every rib and bone that jut against his hand. Rey ate for survival, but her body longed for pleasure, and Ben was the man who was going to give it to her.

His hands shimmied past the dark patch of hair between her legs, settling on the outside of her thighs again. He looked up at her, and she down at him, her lips quirked.

“My lord?” She asked.

“Take off the chemise,” he said. Sit on the edge of the tub.”

She sat on the edge of the tub, but kept the damnable chemise on, her knees pressed together. Ben rose from the water, not caring that the air was cold, because his skin was on fire. He reached for her and kissed her fully on the lips.

By god she was sweet.

Ben didn’t know how he managed this, but he swept her into his arms without breaking the kiss, standing and moving them to the bedroom.

He stood for a moment, debating if her should place her on the bed.

“Fireplace,” Rey managed to say between kisses. “Carpet.”

Of course. She was brilliant.

Ben lay her down gently on the soft carpet, tossing pillows her way and making her laugh as they created a little nest by the flame. The skin of Rey’s body glowed in the firelight, her impossible eyes wide in surprise as she took him in. All of him. His body, his erection. His scars, all of it. Ben had several scars on his body, all worn proudly during his years in service to the Crown. But these were old scars, and Rey seemed fascinated by all of them.

“Now where were we?” Ben asked, kneeling so his knees were between hers. He gave his erection a stroke or two, and seeing her watching him, biting on her lower lip. God.

“Ah yes,” Ben said. “I recall now.”

Then he gently parted her legs, her muslin chemise sliding down her thighs to reveal all of her to him. Ben let out a moan.

“Are you wet for me, Rey?” He asked, lowering his head.

“What are you doing?” He heard her gasp, her voice thick with lust as he fingers flickered over the tiny bud at the crest of her core. “Ohhh.”

“I promised to show you pleasure, Rey,” he told her, dipping a finger inside to find her dripping wet, begging for him to taste. “And I am nothing,” he licked her. “But a man of my word.”

He dipped his head between her legs, licking her, learning what she wanted by the twitch of her leg, the tightness of her core. She pulled at his hair when she particularly liked what he was doing, and she was loud. So loud that he had to clamp a hand over her mouth so they wouldn’t be kicked out of the Inn.

When her crisis came, it was wonderful and complete. She was laughing and crying out, and it made Ben even more satisfied to see her so sated.

She gasped for breath, redness rising on her cheeks as she caught her breath. Ben kissed her neck.

“Good?”

“Very good,” She breathed, wrapping her arms lazily around his neck. “You’re very skilled, my lord.”

“Ben,” he told her. “My name is Ben. But we weren’t done yet.”

“No?” She asked. Ben rubbed his erection against her stomach.

“No,” he said, using his arms to reverse their positions, so she was on top of him, her thighs straddling his. “Raise your hips.”

She followed, and he used his hand to guide himself into her entrance. Rey’s entire body stiffened.

“Relax sweetheart. I know you can take me, you can take me,” he assured her, slowly easing himself further in as she lowered herself, the delicious tension of her around him made Ben want to thrust into her, but he held himself back.

“Ben, I cannot, you’re too…”

“A little bit more,” he said. “You’re taking me so well.”

Rey’s hips bucked and he was fulls seated inside her, and she started to thrust. Ben was completely at her mercy then. She rode him like she had done this before, she took her pleasure from him, and he enjoyed every moment of it. Her palms dug into his chest, and Ben clamped a hand on her thigh to keep her steady, keep her close, while the other hand grasped the skin of her waist under the chemise.

His release came like a shot from a gun, fast and explosive, and his entire world seemed to shatter as he spilled his seed inside of her, and her second crisis came.

He collapsed backward as Rey dropped forward, her cheek on his chest as they both struggled to regain their breaths. Ben felt the edges of fatigue and exhaustion flickering in his vision. He wanted to remember this, his hand on the small of her back, her cheek pressed to his chest.

He realized then that he wasn’t just going to let this girl go.

“Be my mistress,” he murmured into her hair, his eyes already fluttering closed. God he had never been so tired after a round of lovemaking. “I could give you everything your heart could ever desire.”

“Everyone presumes to know what’s in my heart,” she said. “They don’t know me. Nobody does.”

“But I do,” he said, just before he succumbed to sleep. “I do, sweetheart.”

Ben woke up the following morning still lying on the floor. The skin his back burned from rubbing against the carpet, and he was a bit sore. But as he sat up, it became abundantly clear that Rey had disappeared.

* * *

TODAY

The carriage pulled to a stop. Ben could hear the sea in the distance and immediately scowled.

“Now Ben,” Leia said like he was still a child. “You are to choose a duchess by the end of the day. Any woman will do.”

“Any woman?” He echoed, quirking his brow as if to challenge his mother’s rule.

“Yes. Any woman,” she said, patting his leg before the carriage door swung open to reveal the Marquess of Corellia, looking at the scene inside the carriage. “As long as she gives her consent, of course.”

“Good morning Ben,” Han Solo drawled. “Nice to see you will have all your limbs intact.”

He helped Leia down the carriage, giving her a little wink.

“My Lady,” he said.

“My lord,” she shot back with equal parts acid and affection. Ben’s teeth suddenly hurt.

“Excuse me while I empty the contents of my stomach,” Ben muttered, hopping onto the ground of Bespin Cove. “Now can we please get on with this?”

He walked into the first establishment he could find, a pub very curiously called the Rose Pub and Tea Salon.

What kind of a place was this?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OKAY! So we're about to get to the actual story, the events of which, I'm not too sure about myself! We'll figure it out. This whole pantsing business really isn't for me, but I'm having fun so far! Let me know what you thought hehe.


	3. Chapter 3

Rey woke up from the dream, her breath quick and the place between her thighs throbbing.

Three months. It had been three months since she slipped out of Ben’s room at the Inn and left, and into her new life here in Bespin Cove. She’d heard that the local Tea Salon had needed a barmaid, which had made no sense until Rey actually arrived and saw it for herself. It didn’t take much persuasion for her to leave Jakku. The farther from Plutt the better. The man believed that Rey owed him for the money he lost when he wasn’t able to sell her virtue to the highest bidder, and Rey was determined not to pay that debt.

_Tonight, at the very least, tonight. You are not alone._

She had to admit she’d been terrified at first—Lord Ren seemed the kind of man who was never denied what he desired. And yet he’d treated her with gentleness and understanding, going so far as to make her laugh. She had no idea what his rank truly was, but she pictured him a Viscount’s second son, or perhaps even a Baron. That she wasn’t with child was a miracle, but the memory that Ben had left stayed with Rey all this time.

He had asked her to be his mistress. A flattering proposal to be sure, but not one Rey could accept. All she wanted from her small, insignificant life was to live it on her own terms, to have her freedom. Being mistress to Lord Ren would have afforded her his company, but not her freedom. And that was the one thing Rey was not willing to compromise.

But on long evenings, when she felt alone and isolated from the world, it was nice to remember.

_You are not alone_.

She stretched her arms over her head, rolling out of her small bed just in time for Bibi, her cat, to jump out of the way of her feet. She hissed at Rey.

“Sorry sweeting, I didn’t see you there,” Rey chuckled, scratching behind the feline’s ears. “Where did you wander off to last night, hm?”

Rey was pretty sure Bibi was owned by someone else, and had actually asked around the village if they were missing an orange cat, to no avail. But even so, Bibi came and went to Rey as she pleased. It had terrified Rey at first, she was so sure she wasn’t coming back, but Bibi always did.

“Rey!” Maz’ voice called through her door. “Are you up? Please don’t forget to go to the store before you go to the salon.”

“I won’t!” She called back, putting on her boots and her regular day dress, a thinned out, secondhand thing of sturdy brown fabric. “I have the list!”

“Excellent! I have breakfast for you on the table. I will see you at the salon!”

Then Maz was gone. Rey paused by her door, still surprised that such a simple statement would mean so much to her. _I have breakfast for you at the table._

When Maz hired her, she wasn’t sure what to make of the woman who seemed to see right into the heart of Rey. Like all it took was one look, and she knew exactly what Rey needed. Like breakfast on the table before work. Rey insisted on paying Maz most of her wages for the room and board, and it was an arrangement that suited them perfectly for the last three months.

Rey’s life was small. It was always going to be, and she was perfectly content with that.

“Rey!” Kaydel Ko Connix waved at her from behind the counter as she walked in to the busy General Store, Ko Connix and Daughters. Her mother and sister were busy ringing up shop orders, leaving Kaydel free to entertain her friend. “Over here!”

“I’ve never seen the store so busy on a Monday morning,” Rey commented as she and Kaydel worked together to fill out Maz’ order of very precise measures of alum, pepper, sugar and other things they needed for both the tea shop and the nearby cottage.

“Only half the people are actually here to buy anything,” Kaydel rolled her eyes. “The other half are trying to get a glimpse of the new Lord Skywalker.”

“Er…who?” Rey asked in confusion, checking her orders against what Kaydel had measured out.

“The Duke of Tattooine! You haven’t heard,” Kaydel gasped like it caused her endless delight to be the one to share this particular bit of gossip with Rey. “The Skywalkers and the Organa-Solos are third and fourth richest families in England. Put their money together and they’re richer than the Queen, I reckon.”

“Goodness,” Rey commented. She couldn’t picture such wealth, and so could not really be bothered to have a bigger reaction to it.

“This one’s the new Duke,” Kaydel continued, oblivious to Rey’s lack of enthusiasm. “He inherited the title only recently. It was all very mysterious. The previous Duke…disappeared, and his nephew inherited quite suddenly.”

“Disappeared?” Rey echoed, chuckling. “I realize nobility are quite powerful, Kaydel, but I didn’t they they had power over the occult as well.”

“Rey Simms, you are no fun to gossip with,” Kaydel shook her head. Rey shrugged innocently and signed her name next to the ledger Kaydel presented. Maz settled her dues with the Ko Connixes at the end of the month. “Oh, Rey, watch out for—“

But it was too late. Snap Wexley had narrowly avoided being hit in the face by one of the onlookers of the gilded carriage that took up most of the shop window, and in avoiding that person, had knocked the sugar from Rey’s hand. Particles went flying everywhere, but mostly onto Rey.

Ko Connix and Daughters went eerily silent.

“Alright, that’s it!” Mrs. Connix exclaimed, shaking her head. “Anyone who is not here to purchase goods, out! Rey, Kaydel will deliver the new sugar to Takodana in a few minutes. I expect this crowd will move to the tea salon, Maz will need an extra hand.”

“Of course. Thank you, Missus Connix!” Rey said over her shoulder as she hurried through the back door. The bloody carriage and horse team occupied most of the main road, so she had to pass through the servant entrances and back ways to get to the Takodana Tea Salon. Tea Salon by day, Pub by night, Takodana was known as the place in Bespin Cove (or as people liked to joke, Spinster Cove, for all the ladies on holiday here) were a lady of proper standing could enjoy a cup of tea with her companions, and for the few men in the market town to have a tipple or two in the evenings. It was an odd place, which was probably why Rey loved it so much.

It was the closest thing she’d ever found to home, and she loved being a part of it.

The strange buzz of excitement from the shop and the streets had streamed in to Takodana. Today’s ladies were supposed to be doing some form of arts and crafts with their tea, tearing sheets from a droll old book of etiquette and manners and using them for paper maché. But the books had been abandoned for whispering and excited chittering. Eligible young men in recent possession of the third (or fourth?) largest estate in the kingdom were sure to be in want of a wife, and what better place to find one than in Spinster Cove?

“I heard he earns twenty thousand a year. In the _funds_.”

“His uncle had significant power in the opposition before his disappearance.”

“I heard he owns Winterset Grange in Corellia, and uses it for all kinds of debauchery. Like a nobleman’s whorehouse, but worse.”

“I heard he beds only the most beautiful widows and actresses.”

“And he chews out his staff when they’re disloyal.”

“You think he killed his uncle for the dukedom?”

“Rey! Goodness, what happened to you, child?” Maz asked, the small black woman approached and attempted to brush the sugar from Rey’s dress, but it was a lost cause. It was everywhere at this point. Rey’s hands, her dress, her hair were all completely sugar dusted, and she would need a bath tonight. Wonderful.

“There was a crowd at the store, people trying to see the carriage,” Rey rolled her eyes. “Has entertainment been so lacking here on Bespin that the mere sight of a carriage sends everyone in a tizzy?”

“People will always be curious about things that are new. Now put away the things you got from the Connixes and help me serve the tea.”

Rey immediately set aside the things, slipping the powders in their proper stores, putting away bigger items. Then she washed her hands and headed off to work.

She liked this part of her job. The ladies who went on holiday here were all lovely, ready to share a kind word or a smile. Sure, none of them every truly knew her name or her story. But it was fine. Rey still liked listening to the stories they shared, the rumors they whispered about over knitting.

Then the Organa-Solos stepped inside. Rey’s eyes were immediately drawn to a lady with the most exquisite hair and jewelry swept her eyes around the room, her gaze assessing. Beside her, a rugged looking man who looked like he had been the one driving the carriage, put his hands on his hips and searched the room. He looked at where Maz was standing and grinned.

“Han Solo!” Max yelled across the room with no care for propriety or decorum, stunning everyone into silence, like they weren’t already glancing at the family that walked in. Every lady in the room stood up, knowing it was proper to greet members of the ton. “Or should I call you by your proper title, Lord Solo?”

The Marquess of Corellia looked uncomfortable at the attention and nodded slightly as everyone gave him and his family a proper curtsy. He gestured for him to sit. They didn’t.

“Hello Maz,” Han Solo grinned, with a smile that would have made Rey swoon thirty years ago. He and Maz met halfway into the Salon and shared a hug, which was completely inappropriate, and caused more than a couple of gasps among the crowd. “Han’s fine. As always. I like what you’ve done with the place.”

“My lord, someone had to turn the pub into a proper establishment…in the daytime,” Max winked at the nobleman. She _winked_ at him. Good god. “And Lady Organa-Solo! Always a pleasure to see you.”

“And the same to you, dearest,” the Marchioness of Corellia bent down and hugged Maz, and it was so sweet and warm and thoroughly improper that the entire establishment still looked on. “It’s been too long. Have you met my son, the new Lord Skywalker?”

The hush in the crowd, if possible, grew even more silent as the Marchioness gestured to the figure behind her. Rey’s gasp caught in her throat, and she immediately took a step backward, careful not to spill the pot of tea in her hands.

It was him. Ben. Or Lord Ren, as he had introduced himself to her. He looked exactly the same as Rey had pictured him in her fantasies, but all the more solid and clear now that he was actually five feet away from her. Her heart quickened its pace in her chest, and she set the teapot down the counter with shaky fingers.

She had to leave. He couldn’t see her.

“Benjamin Organa Solo, of course, of course,” Maz nodded approvingly, as Ben looked like he was bracing himself for a hug. She didn’t offer him one. “You look very well for a man who has been through quite a lot.”

He said nothing. Ordinarily it would be considered rude, but, Duke.

Rey wondered if it was too late to slip out of the room, but nothing else in the entire space seemed to be moving. Not the furniture, the piano in the corner, and certainly not their customers, who were all still standing still and waiting further instruction from the highest ranking person in the room.

“Where is my suitor?” Maz teased, looking around behind the two Marquesses for a missing fourth person.

“Chewbacca is with the carriage,” Han nodded his head to the outside. “You know he much prefers the outdoors.”

“Indeed I do. So what brings the family to Bespin Cove? I sincerely hope it is not for the swimming.”

“As if we would,” the Marquess snorted. “We’re here on a…more personal errand.”

“We’re seeking a bride for Ben,” Lady Leia said with no hint of shame, irony or joking. She was completely serious. “He decided to grace us with his presence long enough to choose. Ben, you make yourself acquainted with the crowd here.”

Conversation flowed between Maz, Han and Lady Leia, like they had spent half their lives together. In all the time Rey had stayed with Maz, she never once mentioned a connection with the ton of Coruscant, but she supposed it had only been three months. Allowances had to be made.

Meanwhile, Lord Skywalker wasn’t inclined to make conversation, or let anyone else in the room breathe. Everyone in the room that was of lower rank and was not Maz Kanata curtsied. Rey was still too stunned to do the same, which drew attention to her.

That was all it took for his attention to snap to hers.

The shock on his face lasted for exactly one second. Rey wanted to sink into the floor, bury herself in the earth if possible. She had never been afraid to face a gentleman before, but then again, she didn’t realize that he was a Duke at the time.

There were exactly thirty three ranks of nobility between herself and this man. So many ranks that Rey’s station wasn’t even listed on Debrett’s or any etiquette primer. She didn’t count. He probably took up an entire page by himself. But that one second of surprise was all it took to tell her that he knew her. He remembered her. Good god.

Those warm brown eyes were the eyes she knew so well. That physique she’d only touched once, but the memory had been burned into her skin. He had been a part of her, and she suspected that she was still an unanswered question to him. Although whether that question was ‘how are you’ or ’how dare you?’ she wasn’t sure.

“You,” he said, the first thing he said in the five minutes (even if it felt like five hours) that he had been in the room.

Every head in the room turned to each other, as if asking each other who his lordship could possibly be referring to. He stepped down from the entrance, sweeping past the women in much finer dress, much higher rank and much better manners. Leia glanced at her son with mild interest as Ben stopped in front of Rey.

“It’s you,” he said, softer and gentler, in that reverent voice Rey remembered from three months ago. “You’re covered in sugar.”

“You can’t choose her,” Leia called casually from the front of the room. “She’s a serving girl.”

“You said that any woman would do,” Ben turned sharply to his mother like they were arguing over the price of meat, rather than Rey. For whatever reason.

“She’s not just any woman,” Leia pointed out, although Rey had a sense that it was more because she thought highly of Rey than her son.

Ben turned to Rey then, his gaze sending her heart on a wild goose chase to kisses and long nights where she could writhe underneath him in pleasure. A gaze that, had she been more fanciful, promised eternal love and devotion.

“Indeed, she is not,” he said, and looking at him closer, Rey was happy to note that the scar on his face had healed, making him look much less perfect, more vulnerable. But his eyes were red rimmed, and she surmised that it was lack of sleep. Or, given the light scent wafting off of him, it was closer to too much drink. “She’s perfect.”

“Cor,” she said. “Oh lord.”

“That’s _my_ lord to you,” his brow quirked in amusement. “You’re not married, are you?”

She knew very well that he knew very well that she was not. She huffed at him in response.

“And your name…?”

“Rey Simms,” Rey said, bobbing a curtsy, although she bit out the name. “In case you’d forgotten.”

“Oh I didn’t forget,” he said in a low voice, soft enough that nobody else heard. He stood up straighter and the mask of the duke slipped on again. “My mother has given me the task of choosing a duchess. I have chosen you.”

“Me.”

“You,” he repeated, like there were no further arguments to be made.

“Oh, my son, you live to make my life difficult,” Lady Leia murmured as she strode through the room. Seeing the woman standing next to her son and glowering at him would have been funny if Rey was not so terrified of her. “You are trying to thwart me.”

“I do not even know the meaning of the word,” he said, even if his tone made it clear that he knew the meaning perfectly well. “You asked me to choose a woman to become my duchess. I choose Miss Rey Simms. Go on. Make her a duchess.”

Rey’s heart sank. So that was the only reason why he chose her. Not because he particularly liked her, or even that he remembered her. He wanted someone thirty three ranks below him to annoy his mother. He was trying to teach his mother a lesson.

Well Rey was not about to have it. Even as her dreams and fantasies of love and devotion popped like soap bubbles around her, she kept her posture firm and erect, her face impassive. She refused to be a part of a rich family’s petty squabbles, no matter how friendly they were with Maz.

“This woman has a proper job and a life to keep. She does not have time for your games.”

“Then pay her a salary until I propose, or you tire of her. Your choice. Miss Simms, I shall take my leave and head to the pub,” Ben nodded his head at Rey and curtsied at her, which he shouldn’t have done. She didn’t curtsy at him, which she shouldn’t have done either. “You go to her parents and…”

He stopped short, and that was how Rey knew that he knew. The sneaky bastard knew exactly who she was, and yet he was doing this. Ugh. Detestable man.

“Very well,” Leia huffed, clearly not one to back down. Lord, this family was dramatic. “Miss Simms, where may we speak to your parents?”

“I have no parents,” Rey said, keeping her head held high. “And I can certainly leave my post anytime I wish. If you’re making me a duchess, I have no need to work another day in my life now, do I?” She shot Maz a look, and her employer looked like she was tying her hardest not to laugh. “Now if you’ll excuse me, your grace, I’ll just pop up to my loft and pack my things, shall I? I hope you’re not allergic to cats.”

Then she looked at Ben, making a very obvious show of the fact that she was openly ogling his physique. To be fair, she was only too aware that it was a very fine one.

“Cor you’re handsome,” she said in the thickest country accent she could manage. “I think I shall thoroughly enjoy our wedding night.”

The entire room burst into laughter, which was how Rey knew that she was in a safe place. If the Organa Solos/Skywalkers, what have you, were trying to take her on, Rey was not going to take it lying down.

“Rey, I hardly think I can part with you in these circumstances,” Maz said, her brow quirked as she looked at Rey.

“Well we find ourselves at an impasse, Missus Kanata,” Ben said, turning to her again. “As I do not intend to part with her at all.”

His eyes spoke volumes more than his words could, and Rey knew what he was saying. _I remember every single thing we did together, and I want you._

Stubborn man.

“Well, mother? Will you make me a duchess?” Rey asked. “You don’t mind if I call you mother, do you?”

From the front of the room, the Marquess of Corellia was shaking his head and brushing a hand over his face like this kind of confrontation happened often.

“Very well then,” Leia said, shaking her shoulders. “Miss Simms, you have ten minutes. I shall meet you both in the carriage. We have no time to waste. Ben, you would do well to accompany your future duchess.”

Then she turned on her heel and walked to the front of the room, throwing Han a look that clearly meant for him to follow her. But the rest of the room was much more interested in Rey and Ben being left alone.

“Well then, your grace,” Rey said. “Shall I take you up to my room?”

“Lead the way,” he murmured.

“Thank you all for your kind hospitality ladies, but I’m off to become a duchess!” She laughed, walking out of the room, Ben at her heels. As the door shut behind her, the whole room turned to Maz, who laughed.

“Back to your crafts, ladies, the duke is quite taken,” she noted before she slipped out of the door after them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note some little details from the first two chapters have changed! Ben and Rey initially meet at an Inn in Jakku, and the Takodana Tea Salon and Pub is now located on Bespin Cove, which is the nearest name to Spinster Cove as I can recall. 
> 
> Also note that historical accuracy does not exist here, and this is NOT England! Ordinarily the higher ranking Organa-Solos would be addressed by their estates--Lord Corellia, Lady Corellia and Lord Tattooine--but English naming of their nobles never did much make sense to me, so this is what it is. Leia would not be likely to inherit her family's estate, it would have gone to Ben upon his birth, but we can't have that here. Also Rey would probably be scorned by the public for being so openly rude to Ben, but he deserves it. 
> 
> And finally, I outlined the entire story! Not sure hoe many chapters that leaves us, but at least I know where we gotta go. :)


	4. Chapter 4

Rey was angry with him. He’d only known her for on night, and yet it was easy to see that she was, at the very least, not pleased. And why should she be? He acted like an ass. Even with her improper attitude and smiles, he knew that she would have pommeled him if she had the chance.

But she was here. Alive, radiant and beautiful, within touchable distance of Ben. It was a thought that made it hard to breathe. It had floored him when he saw her standing across the room, ten feet away from him. He thought he’d been struck with some deliriousness in his hangover, because he’d seen her and instantly thought she was a sparkling illusion, the light catching on bits of her hair, her skin, her dress.

Who was this girl? How had she ended up in Bespin Cove of all places? Why did she say no to his offer to be his mistress, if she was just going to quit her job and agree to be a duchess?

But he couldn’t let her out of his sight. Not anymore. The three months that he had waited were long enough. And if it placated his mother, well then, even better.

Ben smacked his head on the low vault of the ceiling that seemed to come out of nowhere.

“Damn.”

“Language, Lord Skywalker,” Maz said, practically skipping past him as she entered the humble abode she shared with Rey. It wasn’t much. He could see the entire place in one glance, but the place looked comfortable and lived-in. Like cone could curl up into one of the seats very easily and feel comfortable.

“Watch the ceiling,” Rey said over her shoulder as she headed up to her room. Society dictated that Ben had no business following her upstairs, and he had a sense that Maz wasn’t about to let him do that.

Until his mother showed up.

“Alright, Ben. You’ve had your fun, come down and find yourself another woman to bother,” Leia said, any austerity and imperialness lost as she marched into Maz’s house.

“Tea, Leia?” She asked, and the older woman marched over, using an ornate hand fan made with Italian lace to stave off the heat. Ben plucked the fan the moment she set it down and handed it to Maz, who accepted it with a raised brow.

“Thank you for allowing me into your home,” he said courteously to Maz.

“Ben!”

“Mother, I thought you said it was rude to arrive at someone’s house without gifts,” Ben said icily, taking Leia’s cane and handing it to Maz as Leia poured herself a cup of tea. He was aware that Leia and Maz became acquainted during the rebellion, Maz had been instrumental in one of the many rescue plots that Leia needed to hatch to save Han Solo. At the end of the war, she was granted a place in Bespin Cove, where she since made her home. And apparently, gave room and board to the one woman Ben couldn’t stop thinking about.

“You insist on this, then?” Leia asked. “Taking Rey from her home here?”

“No offense Maz, but I believe the life of a duchess holds more appeal than that of a servant girl,” Ben said dryly.

“Oh none taken. I for one am very interested in how this will turn out,” she shrugged.

“You will have two weeks,” Ben announced, pacing the floor. “Two weeks to turn her into the duchess you desire. And if she is not the toast of the ton by then, bring her back here with a couple of new gowns and a wealth of vast experience she never would have received here.”

“And if she is?” Leia’s brow rose archly.

“Then I swear to propose to her on the spot.”

“I don’t suppose I have any say in the matter?” Rey asked, descending the steps with a small bag, and an orange cat, who immediately hissed at Ben’s direction.

God, but she was beautiful. More beautiful than his memory had allowed him to remember. And she was still dusted in sugar. He wondered what she would taste like. Much sweeter, obviously, but he yearned for her in ways he’d scarcely allowed himself since he took the name of Duke Skywalker.

He shook his head. He reminded himself that he had no intentions of marrying, or of taking a bride. He was simply letting his mother have her way. Even if he was going to be very difficult about it.

“What’s your counter offer?” Leia asked, diplomatic as ever, as Maz slowly fanned herself with the hand fan.

“I would like to be paid my wages for the two weeks that I am gone. That is all,” she said. “And that I am very much looking forward to becoming the next Duchess Skywalker.”

Ben choked on air.

“May I speak to you in private, Miss Simms?” he blurted out the words before he could carefully consider their meaning.

“Proposing already, Ben?” Leia asked.

“I merely need to discuss more private matters with Miss Simms,” he said through grit teeth, gently taking her elbow and dragging her to the more private area of the upstairs, which was the hallway leading to Rey’s tiny room.

They stood in the darkened hallway, Rey, Ben and her cat, who wriggled out of her master’s arms to go downstairs where the atmosphere was clearly a lot less frosty.

“What are you playing at?” he asked her.

“I could ask you the same question, my lord,” Rey hissed. “I am not comfortable with you or your mother using me as a pawn in your parental games.”

“You don’t think I don’t want to make you a duchess? If I recall correctly, I offered to make you my mistress.”

“I am not naive enough not to know that those two things are not equal,” Rey told him, her eyes blazing, and the sugar sparkling. Lord, how on earth was Ben going to survive being so close to her for two weeks?

No. He had to stay strong and resolute. Rey would be near, but that was all that he would allow himself. She did not desire to be his mistress, he did not desire a wife. That was that.

“If I may be candid—“ she started.

“Oh I don’t think you need to ask my permission for that.”

“Your offer to be a mistress was rude, and I could not in good conscience agree. I am merely tolerating this scheme of yours because I refuse to bend backward and play along.”

“You didn’t seem to have any problem bending backward for me three months ago.”

The slap she laid across his face was so loud that the air cracked. Surely Maz and Leia had heard that. He certainly felt it in his face, burning, but he didn’t dare touch it.

God, he was an ass. A first rate, Quality ass. He didn’t mean to infuriate her, he just…enjoyed verbally sparring with her. Like someone finally understood him.

“You have no right to mention that night to me any longer,” Rey told him, implying that he had a right to it before that moment. "I may have bedded you that night, but that gives you no right to me or my body, _my lord_." 

She spat those two words out like they were an insult, and they might as well have been. But Ben didn't flinch. 

“One thousand pounds,” Ben said, because if he was already in this vein of conversation, he may as well completely stuff his entire foot into the boot. “I am offering you a thousand pounds to be the disaster of the season.”

Rey blinked at him. Once. Twice. Three times. Clearly, she had not expected this from him. Not at all. But it was enough invitation for Ben to keep talking.

“Why?”

“Why not? It will give my mother something to put her attention on for two weeks, at least. I shall pay for all your expenses in Corellia or Coruscant, wherever we must be. Your job will be to accompany her, distract her with diction, keep her busy with fashion, put her attention away from the fact that I have no intention to marry.”

Rey tilt her head to the side, and somehow, he knew he’d said something that piqued her interest. He may not have known her long, but he knew she was about to tell him what she thought anyway.

“You are offering to pay me, a lowly servant girl, a thousand pounds, plus expenses, and the finest everything in Coruscant, just because you would rather not tell your mother that you don’t want to marry,” she said, like she found his ingenious solution quite ridiculous.

“You and I both know that you are not a lowly servant girl,” he said, adding an edge to his voice. He hated it when he referred to herself that way, because that was certainly not how he saw her. “And you try telling a former rebellion leader that her son would rather not give her grandchildren.”

Rey actually laughed, and the constraints on Ben’s chest loosened considerably. He wondered what he had done to deserve to have such a prize standing in front of him, because he certainly was no catch.

“I am not agreeing because I want the money,” she clarified, and hope immediately blossomed in Ben’s chest. He’d scarcely allowed himself such pleasures like this.

“I know that. What you really want is what the money can buy you,” he said, finding himself stepping closer. “Freedom. Whether it’s a life here with Maz, or the freedom to move on somewhere else.”

“Why me?” Rey asked, clearly having no objection to him coming closer. The heat of her body prickled his skin. Had she been any other woman, or this any other circumstance, he would have reached for her hand, kissed her senseless. Lord knows he wanted to.

“There’s something about you,” he said, tilting his head so her face caught the light. “Something…all over you.”

He leaned forward and pressed his lips to the base of her ear, licking there. “Something sweet.”

“Accident at the general store this morning. Which, may I say, was caused by you and your barouche.”

“Carriage, sweetheart,” he smiled as he pressed a kiss to the sugary skin. “Dukes travel in gilded carriages. As will you.”

She made a sound that he could only identify as half a laugh, and half a groan.

“I take it you’re saying yes to my proposal?” He asked. 

“I am,” she said, with a steely determination in her eyes. “But only for a week.”

“A week?” Ben asked, even if the first thing he actually wanted to say was no. A firm, solid no. _Stay with me, Rey. Stay with me for the rest of my life. Even if I can't really give you anything in return. Even if I am barely worth my name._

“May I ask why?”

Rey looked up at him, and he felt open and exposed, like she was pulling the knife across his face again. And all it took was one shuddering breath from her for him to realize why it had to be a week.

“Any longer than a week, and you run the risk of falling in love with me,” she said with such nonchalance that Ben knew she meant to say the opposite of what she was saying. “It’s in both of our interests that it only be that long.”

Ben swallowed thickly. She had him wrapped around her finger, and she likely didn’t realize.

“Very well,” he nodded, his lips grazed the base of her ear once again. He saw her entire body shudder, and he liked that he had that effect on her. “We have a deal.”

“Indeed we do,” She said.

* * *

“Ben, what happened to your cheek?”

“You have one week, mother.”

“One week! I couldn’t possibly,” Leia shook her head in protest, putting her teacup down a little more forcefully than what was proper.

“The Maker created the universe in one week. Certainly a duchess will not nearly be as difficult,” Ben said, leaning against a wall as Rey rejoined them downstairs.

“Benjamin. As much as it pains me to say it, I am not—“

“Hold on mother, I should like a paper and pencil to note down the exact moment you say ‘I am not God,’ so that I may have it framed. I’ve been wondering what to get father for his birthday.”

“You infuriating boy,” Leia huffed, standing and thumping her cane on the floor.

“You rebellious woman,” Ben’s eyebrow rose. “The rules of our bargain are this. You have one week to turn Rey into the toast of the ton. If you manage that, I will marry her without hesitation. But if you fail, you are no longer allowed to harangue me, pester me, or question me on the subject of marriage. Ever.”

“What will happen to the estates, then?”

“They pass on to your relatives in Naboo, if I recall the rules of succession correctly,” Ben said, and he did recall them correctly, because he’d researched them the moment they announced he was to inherit the Skywalker estate. “I did hear that I have an older male cousin on Grandmother Pooja’s side.”

“I am going to the carriage. Rey, keep your posture straight. Maz, lovely to see you as always. I should like to have you at Chandrila Park for Christmas.”

“I would be delighted to make the trip. If Chewbacca will be the one to pick me up from here,” Maz grinned, and the two women exchanged a warm hug. Then she swept past her son and made her way out of the loft.

Ben looked at Rey, who was too occupied with looking at Maz. He wondered if she was going to cry. She took a deep inhale. Ben could only wonder at what she was feeling. She had come here to Bespin Cove only three months prior, after an escape from a less than scrupulous man. She’d made this small place her home, and here came Ben, taking her away from it, albeit willingly.

He wanted to reach out to her. Pull her into his arms and keep her safe from whatever it was that hurt her. But in this case, he was the one causing that hurt, which only proved his point. He did not deserve any happiness. She did.

And if money was the way she was going to get that, very well.

But Maz beat him to the punch, pulling Rey close. There was a second where Rey looked like she was in complete shock, like she didn’t know what she was supposed to do when she was being hugged. But she got the right of it, and pulled Maz close, not daring to shed a tear.

She was terrifyingly strong. Ben desired her all the more for it.

“Take care, child,” Maz said. “The Organa-Solos are good people. But if they hurt you, Chewie and I will hunt them down.”

She flashed a look over her shoulder, a clear warning to Ben. He said nothing.

“I’ll come back,” Rey said, her voice cracking. He knew it was more to assure herself than her employer. “I swear I will come back.”

“Do not worry. Takodana and I shall be waiting for you.”

Ben went ahead to the carriage. He couldn’t stand to see any more of this. They deserved their moment of privacy. His father was waiting by the door, looking up at the tea salon.

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” he said cryptically to his son.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, father.”

“Listen, son, I…nevermind,” Han finally said, the one thing he always managed to say to Ben. “Your mother wants us back in Coruscant as soon as possible. Get back in the carriage.”

“Last I heard, I was the duke,” he muttered to his father as Chewie opened the door for him. “And you the Marquess.”

“Well, you’ll always be my child, regardless.”


	5. Chapter 5

If Jakku had been a dry, barren and godforsaken land, Takodana was lush green and endless oceans, Coruscant was a riot of grey. And it was loud. Rey had fallen asleep at some point in the journey, only to be jerked awake by the tolling of a bell as they passed a church.

“Good morning,” Leia said, looking amused as Rey reacquainted herself with her surroundings. Much to her surprise, beside her, Ben visibly relaxed and moved his arm. Oh. Had she been sleeping on his arm? “Did you have a nice nap?”

“Um,” was all she managed to say.

“Duchesses do not say ‘um,’ they say, ‘oh dear, I’ve fallen asleep on his arm.’”

“Oh dear, I’ve fallen asleep on his arm,” Rey repeated unconvincingly. In the corner of her eye, she spotted Ben stifling a laugh and scowled at him.

“Also, duchesses do not scowl. We glare witheringly at anyone who displeases us.”

Lady Leia shot a look at her son that matched that description exactly. Rey imitated it, which only made Ben roll his eyes.

“I can tell this week will fly by,” he said, edging closer to the wall as Bibi continued to scrutinize him disapprovingly. The cat had taken a shine to Leia, allowing her to pet her, but no more. With Ben, she was downright adversarial. “Like a hound running around in a pool of molasses.”

“I wonder how the hound would find itself in that position in the first place,” Rey mused. “Is it lost?”

“Perhaps its master recklessly left it in a flooded kitchen,” Ben added. “That was the image in my head.”

“Goodness gracious,” Leia muttered from her seat. “This week _will_ fly by, much faster than either of you think. Lady Mothma’s ball to celebrate the anniversary of the rebellion is tonight. I need to get a sample dress quickly hemmed and fit, proper shoes, ribbons!”

At this point the carriage had already pulled to a stop. They were here.

“Goodness. Ribbons,” Han said just as he swung the door open. “Sounds like you’re about to send Threepio spinning on his heels. Again.”

“He’s worked with my family since I was a child, he’s used to last minute dramatics,” Leia waved it off as she accepted her husband’s hand to help her down. Bibi followed behind them, as if she lived in this house and knew exactly where she was going. Rey leapt up from her seat and was about to hop down herself when Ben’s arm shot across the opening, making her fall back in surprise.

“Ben!”

“It’s my lord, your grace, or Lord Skywalker in public,” he corrected her, seemingly unconcerned with the fact that his parents were watching them both. “And you do not leap down from carriages. Normally a footman opens the door and escorts you down, but my father has always insisted in doing the staff’s job for my mother. It causes much ire between him and our butler.”

Rey saw the footman waiting patiently by the door and looked down at her grubby, rough hand. It didn’t feel right to ask for a man in a fine navy blue uniform to dirty is white glove with her hand, just to alight from a vehicle she could perfectly alight from herself.

“I thought you said you wanted me to be a disaster,” she looked over her shoulder at him.

“I do,” he told her. “But I would also prefer not to send you to the wolves without proper armor.”

How contrary. Ben seemed to want to push her away and keep her close at the same time, which completely baffled Rey. Were all dukes this…infuriating?

Rey would have to decide how she wanted to toe these lines. She had a week to do this, and she was going to do it her way. There was a lot one could do with a thousand pounds. Purchase a small home for her and Maz so they didn’t have to live above the shop, hire more staff for the tea salon…

_You say that as if you consider the salon yours. It’s not. It’s temporary, and with a thousand pounds, you could be free to do whatever you wanted, for the rest of your life._ Rey would have to remember that there was nobody she could rely on in this world but herself, and the money was the only way she could keep doing that.

She ignored the footman’s curious look at her when he escorted her down. Ben alighted the carriage perfectly fine. Then he turned in the direction of the street, and spoke to the footman about hiring a hack for him.

He was leaving?

“Will we see you at the ball tonight, son?” Leia called over to Ben, who only waved at his mother in response before he entered the hackney and left. Rey watched him go, wondering why disappointment sunk in at the very corner of her heart. She pushed it aside and took a step in the direction of Falcon House, only for Leia to shake her head.

“Is there a problem, your grace?” She bit out tersely.

“A duchess does not walk out in public unescorted,” Leia informed her, her gaze formidable as she stood on the home’s doorway. “Well, not an unmarried one, anyway. And since my son has decided not to participate…”

“I can step in,” Han graciously offered, walking so he could stand next to Rey and offering his arm. “Lady Rey?”

Oh. She wasn’t sure how she felt being addressed as a lady. She certainly wasn’t one. But Han made her feel at ease, taking her for a turn around the carriage just as practice.

“I’m sure you’re excited about tonight,” Han said. “You’ll hear everyone talk about the weather, the shooting, the weather, and have I mentioned, the weather?”

Rey giggled, because she’d never heard anyone speak so frankly. Clearly the strains of society had not tarnished the legendary Han Solo. Not one bit.

“I take it balls are not your favorite thing, my lord.”

“Goodness no,” Han snorted. “I would much rather be at the stables. But Leia enjoys them, and I do love her.”

“Are those…Windsor Greys?” Rey was uncomfortable with emotions. She couldn’t determine if she was supposed to comfort him, express admiration or marvel that two people from seemingly different worlds managed to carve a place for each other in their hearts. Instead she focused on the horses.

“You know your horses,” Han commented, taking her closer to the animals. “We found them wild on the Corellia estate, and somehow managed to persuade them to work with us.”

“Yes, I…,” she frowned slightly as she realized she was skirting the edges of a memory that didn’t belong in a place as fine as this. “I grew up near a ranch on Jakku. I was made to work there a few times. They sold the horses for racing, mostly, but sometimes I got to see Windsor Greys, thoroughbreds and the like.”

“I should remember to have Finn, our horsemaster, give you a tour of our stables sometime,” Han said as they circled back to where Leia was standing and watching them like a hawk.

“I…I would love that,” Rey admitted, surprised that someone would offer something so freely.

“Good to know that walking comes easy to you,” Leia said when Rey approached her again. “But that posture leaves much to be desired.”

“Please do not tell me I am to put a book on my ‘ead,” she said.

“Hhhhead,” Leia said slowly. “H is a letter and requires use.”

“Hhhhhead,” Rey repeated. “Hhhhorn. Hhhhorticulture. Hhhorrendous.”

“Hhhhenough,” Han said, grinning as he, moved past them into the house.

“Han,” Leia said, as if to chide him, making Rey giggle as they stepped into the house. Immediately three members of the household staff came upon Leia, where she proceeded to expertly answer their queries about dinner guests and room assignments, and assigned tasks to ensure Rey was ready for her sudden debut tonight. Rey marveled at Leia’s efficiency and watched her with interest.

“There’s nothing to be done for it. Rey and I will have to go to the dresser’s shop later today. She will need a full wardrobe, not to mention a gown for tonight.”

“Blue, madam?”

Leia examined Rey for a moment. “Green, I think.”

Before Rey had anytime to ask Leia what that was supposed to mean, she had already turned to the next person on her list.

“I’m famished. Artoo, if you could bring us some tea in the drawing room, thank you,” Leia said, shrugging off her travel coat and handing it to a man Rey would later learn was the second butler, before she went into the drawing room and sat down on one of the plush, elegant chairs. Rey suddenly felt very underdressed and inadequate in her old brown frock. Everything in the room was worth more than anything she’d ever possessed in her life, vibrant and alive with warm tones of reds and pinks. She was a speck in the room, a thing in dull brown.

But Rey refused to be cowed by things she could not control. She held her head high and put on a stiff upper lip. _Of course you feel inadequate, you don’t belong here,_ she told herself. _And it’s best to remember that._ And Rey was okay with that. She didn’t want or need any of this, when she’d learned to live with much less. So she shook it off and walked into the room. Just in time to catch Leia looking disparagingly at an odd, misshapen lump of cloth that was on the Marchioness’ lap.

Rey opened her mouth, about to say “um,” to catch her attention, when she decided against it, and stood waiting by the door instead.

“Oh, do sit down, and do not look at this,” Leia said, waving a hand at the soft, plush looking seat in front of her. In the interest of being terrible, Rey flopped ungracefully into the chair and bounced a little, actually tossing cushions on to the empty space on the couch next to Leia. She raised a brow at them, but made no further comment.

“What is that?” Rey asked Leia, pointing at the…er. Thing.

“A manifestation of my maternal panic,” the Marchioness laughed like there was no other way to describe it, holding up the thing. It looked like a glove, but had no holes for the fingers. Or a sock for a foot with no feet. “It’s a cap.”

“O-oh,” Rey managed to say. “It’s…er…lovely.”

Leia barked out a laugh. “You’re learning already. But this is how I realized that Ben needs to get married very soon. I need grandchildren. My family has always had a terrible history with families. Despite what you see, we Organa-Solos have clawed out of the Skywalker curse and managed to somewhat stay together. And I want that streak to end. So. I need him settled, I need him happy, and I need to have at least five grandchildren.”

Well, good to know that the Marchioness didn’t do anything by half-measures. Rey pushed aside an image of her mind, of her and Ben walking into this house with five children running up and down their arms (all of them with dark hair and his intense eyes), only to have Leia emerge and wrap all of them around her arms, even if that was physically impossible. The thought of that love and sentiment, of _home_, shook Rey to her very core.

God above. She had to be more careful. She was only here for a week.

“Something happened to him when his uncle, my brother Luke, disappeared,” Leia’s brow furrowed as she continued, putting the cap aside as she gestured for Rey to pour the tea for both of them. “Ben has always been quiet, reserved. He was studying with Luke at Ach-to Hollow when it happened. According to Ben, they met for breakfast and separated for their own activities that day, and Luke just…never came back. But after that, Ben moved to a different residence from us, started befriending the nobles from the opposition…”

“They call themselves the First Order,” Han practically rolled his eyes as he sauntered into the room, Bibi at his wake. The cat was doing a much better job of adjusting to the place than Rey was. “Hell bent on squeezing as much money from the land as they can, with no care for the people in it. I have no idea what Ben gets from associating with Lord Snoke and his kind, but there you go.”

“Well…have you asked him?” Rey asked, passing a cup to Han, then to Leia, as was proper. If there was anything she knew how to do, it was to serve a good cup of tea.

Han and Leia stared at her, accepting their cups, their heads tilted to the side like they just realized that Rey was a stranger in their home, and that she clearly had no idea what she was talking about.

“I don’t see how my suggestion is so ludicrous,” Rey pointed out. Honestly, the lines of communication in this family were non-existent. Ben couldn’t tell his mother what he really wanted, Leia couldn’t ask Ben why he couldn’t tell her, and Han was…well, clearly, he was just Han.

“I can see why my son chose you,” Leia said smiling wryly as she added milk to her tea. “But I hope you decide to stay a little longer. Our situation is…not great, but I’m always hopeful. This is the first time he’s shown any remote interest in what we’re doing.”

“Ben’s a lonely kid,” Han added. “But I think you could make him happy.”

Rey wanted to tell them about her agreement with Ben, tell them that he had no plans of marrying her, that she was bring paid to sabotage herself, because she couldn’t stand to break these two people’s hearts. So she opened her mouth, ready to tell them everything…

Until Ben swept in to the room. He’d changed clothes, and Rey realized that this was the first time she was seeing him truly cleaned up. He looked resplendent and handsome in a coat and a clean shirt. He must have walked back to Falcon House, his hair looked like the wind had blown through it, but only made it look glossier and more…alive, somehow.

Rey tried not to blush as a memory of her hands pulling lightly on that hair came back to her. She tried to reconcile the man from that night to the man she was seeing now. Ben from that night had been vulnerable and so open with her. This man could hardly be expected to speak when spoken to, but managed to go toe to toe against Rey, his mother, anyone, if he had to.

How odd to have shared intimacies with a man she barely knew. She never expected him to be back in her life, and yet, here he was. Benjamin Organa Solo. The Duke of Tattooine.

“I would like to speak to Rey,” he said, looking at her like there was nobody else in the room. “In private.”

“Again?” Leia asked, “two times in one day, and still no proposal?”

“Again?” Han repeated, as if surprised that Ben would do it even once in a day.

“Rey,” Ben clearly ignored his parents and tilt his head toward the door. Rey made a show of finishing her tea, placing it back on the tray, removing the cushions from her person, and carefully rearranging them back on the chair.

“Rey,” Ben repeated, his voice lower and more dangerous this time.

“I shall return as soon as possible, your grace,” Rey said, giving both Leia and Han a little curtsy as she gave Ben the stoniest face she could possibly muster and walked right past him like she knew exactly where he was planning to lead her. From behind her, she heard Han laugh and Leia tell him, “she’s learning already!”

* * *

Rey was not sure how big one’s home in Town was supposed to be, but for the Organa-Solos, a house in town was large enough to accomodate stables, a garden large enough to host a lawn party and a hedge maze.

That was where Ben led her, the both of them walking in silence until the veil of tall greenery over took them. The edges were high enough that Rey could see nothing but grey sky overhead (was the sky always this grey, or was it just Coruscant?) and green around them. And, of course. Ben. She didn’t think that there was a moment where she was unaware of Ben.

They made it to a clearing, where a fountain of Cupid was waiting for them. Rey sat on the lip of the fountain and had memories of sitting at the lip of the bathtub, water up to her ankles as Ben looked at her with hungry eyes…

“Have my parents been feeding you their republic propaganda?” He asked her, and Rey shrugged.

“People like me have no room in our lives for politics,” she said. “Although people speak as if we matter.”

“For the next week, you are not one of them, you’re one of us,” Ben pointed out, standing across from her, his arms crossed over his chest. Even with such a powerful stance, Rey didn’t cower. Indeed, she found herself very attracted to him. Blast. She really didn’t want that.

“Your intentions with me are do confusing, my lord, it’s making me ache,” Rey said, and she didn’t miss the way Ben’s lip quirked when she said ‘ache.’ She’d meant to add the word ‘head’ somewhere in the middle, but clearly she was much to distracted to be of any use. “Would you like me to be a disaster, or no?”

Much to her surprise, Ben took a step forward and knelt in front of her. He was impossibly tall, so even in this position, he was just level with her, but the intention was there. The gaze in his eyes was exactly the same from three months ago, and it was enough to make Rey speechless. She hated to admit that she’d missed him. Missed the intimacy of someone who seemed to genuinely care about you.

“I find it impossible to stay away from you,” he said, his voice low and sweet. “And I feel that pull toward your light. Because you are light, Rey. The purest—“

“Perhaps not the purest,” she pointed out, blushing.

“Loveliest, then. The loveliest light. And I don’t deserve it,” he said. “I am a monster. I forced you to come here, because I am selfish, and greedy, and—“

She didn’t even let him finish the bloody sentence, because he was being ridiculous, and Rey needed to kiss him. Lord she’d missed kissing him. Kissing Ben was a pleasure, a delicious pleasure that made her heart bloom. Rey had some experience kissing boys, but there was nothing like Ben to discover what it was like to kiss a _man,_ a real man who knew he could easily take charge, but allow Rey to lead the interaction the way she liked. A man who kissed back without reservation, and knew exactly what he was doing when he slid his tongue into her mouth.

Rey wrapped her arms around his neck, and he stood up to his full height, carrying her with him. Her feet lifted off the ground, but Ben’s arms supported her, and she didn’t feel like letting go.

“I would have offered you ten thousand pounds to come back to Coruscant with me,” he said, and his words send a cold bucked of water down Rey’s desire. The harsh reality of their situation set in. He must think she was here because of the money.

She scrambled away from him, and to his credit, he released her, and Rey stalked off to the other side of the fountain, Ben following her.

“Rey!”

“Let me tell you the reason why I agreed to come with you,” she whirled around to face him, and he actually took a step back in surprise. “It wasn’t because you offered me money. Partly because you and your mother infuriated me by speaking over me as if I was an object back in Bespin—“

“I apologize—“

“And partly because I wanted to be with you, Ben. I do not want to be your mistress, and you do not want to marry me. Well then, a week is going to have to be good enough for the both of us. But at least I get to see you. To have you, if you would let a poor country bumpkin tup you to–“

“Do not,” he bit out, and he looked truly agitated to say that. “Do not speak so lowly of yourself. And what we did? What we want to do? It is not as crass as tupping. It could not be. I worshipped you, Rey. Your body. Your spirit. And I had the opportunity to have you near, and the opportunity to get what I want, which is for my mother to stop pestering me.”

_Ben’s a lonely kid. But I think you could make him happy._ Han’s words squeezed her heart.

“And why can’t you just…tell them what you want? Tell them whatever it is that happened to you when your uncle disappeared? They just want to know.”

A veil of darkness fell over Ben’s face, and it was like she was looking at a completely different person.

“So they did influence you,” he said, looking away from her. “I should have known.”

“You brought me here for that purpose!” Rey said, her head spinning. Ben was being contrary, confusing and devastatingly charming, and Rey needed to sit down. “Ben. That night with you, it can’t happen again. What if I got pregnant?”

“Then I would take care of you and any child that resulted,” he said immediately. Dukes and bastard children were not uncommon, but Rey would be damned if she allowed that to happen.

“You don’t know that,” she shook her head. “But that night was perfect to me. Please, do not ruin it. I do not desire to be your mistress, and I am not good enough to be a duchess…”

“Have you considered,” Ben said, his hand on Rey’s arm as he looked deeply into her eyes. He looked so lost and sad, Rey couldn’t help but brush his cheek with her fingertips, as if to chase away invisible tears there. “That the reason why I do not desire marriage is because I am not good enough to be a duke?”

They heard footsteps in the distance, and Ben and Rey let go of each other like the other was on fire. Chewie emerge, smiling at them and holding a crossbow like it was a perfectly normal occurrence to do so. He nodded curtly at Ben, which wasn’t really something you did for a Duke, but Ben didn’t seem to mind so much.

“My lady,” Chewie said. “Han has asked me to tour you around the grounds before Leia prepares you for the evening’s ball.”

Rey found it strange that she would be addressed so formally, and yet the masters of the house were referred by their first names. She’d never been called a lady before, and now didn’t feel like the right time to start.

“No doubt an attempt to sway you over to their side,” Ben muttered darkly, looking away. “I have business to attend to.”

And again, without bothering to look at Rey, or at Chewie, Ben stalked off the way he and Rey came. She hated that her heart wrenched at the sight of him walking away. _Don’t,_ she told herself. _He means nothing. You mean nothing to him. Do not get attached._

“Lady Rey, shall we?” Chewie asked, holding out a hand in a polite gesture for her to follow him.

They walked in silence mostly, and Rey enjoyed it very much. She saw a large lake, an orchard, then to the back where the kitchen garden and greenhouses were. There were too few people who knew the meaning of silence nowadays, and Chewie was one of those people, clearly. The rest of the staff smiled and bowed respectfully at them as they passed, as if it wasn’t clear that Rey was a lowborn hussy brought in to the manor for less than ideal reasons.

“Han asked me to show you the stables,” Chewie explained as they reached a clearing, and the familiar scents of horse clung to the air. Rey’s eyes lit up at the sight of the Solo stables—it looked clean and well-appointed, with a corral for the horses to exercise just by the lake.

Two geldings were riding toward them, with two men laughing together as they did. They made a stop in front of Rey and Chewie and waved like they were friends in a park. Rey smiled and waved back.

“You must be Rey!” A man with dark skin and a friendly smile hopped down from the horse with ease. “Lord Solo sent notice that you were coming to Takodana, and everyone in the house has been talking about it ever since. I’m Finn, and I…really should have bowed, sorry.”

He gave Rey an awkward little bow and Rey shook her head.

“Please don’t, I’m not a lady.”

“In this house, you are,” the other man with wild curls grinned and followed Finn’s lead. “Poe Dameron. Lady Leia’s private secretary. Finn and I were just making our usual rounds in the estate.”

“It’s nice to meet you both,” Rey smiled, and that wasn’t a lie. It was so rare for her to meet people who didn’t seem to have any pretense, and she immediately liked Finn and Poe’s energy.

“Would you like to ride?” Finn offered. “We have a few horses here who would love to make new friends.”

“Finn’s the best groomsman in the region,” Poe said most proudly, clapping a hand on Finn’s shoulder. “Lord Han managed to snatch him from Lady Phasma’s country home.”

“You say that like I didn’t want to leave,” Finn said darkly, and Rey didn’t miss the dark look the two men exchanged.

“Well, you’re here now,” Poe squeezed Finn’s shoulder and smiled. The look exchanged between the two gentlemen was so warm and intimate that Rey almost looked away, not wanting to interrupt what was clearly a private moment.

“Oh, Rey,” Poe said, looking back at Rey like he just remembered she was there. “Lady Leia asked me to bring you to her as well. You can ride with me back to the house.”

“Oh, but I’m not wearing…” Rey looked down at her dress and boots. Completely inappropriate riding wear.

“It’s a quick ride, and I assure you, you will be safe with me,” Poe gave her a little wink that made her feel like she wasn’t going to be safe with him at all.

“You can sit aside my gelding,” Finn said, rolling his eyes as he offered Rey the reins. “The saddle can accomodate you, and your boots should be well enough.”

“Oh I can walk…”

“Finn’s suggestion has merits,” Chewie spoke up, and that was enough for Rey to get on the horse. Poe smiled at her and nodded before he raced up to the house. Rey followed after him. It had been a while since she rode, but it felt amazing—feeling the powerful beast underneath her, directing its movements and feeling all of that under her. Finn’s horse was docile and sweet, and easy enough to ride. So much so that Rey wished they were covering more ground as they approached the house.

“Ben—I mean, my lord!” Poe said as they stopped near the entrance. “Fine weather for a ride, is it not?”

Ben, standing near another man and looking as busy as a duke had the rights to be, looked up at Rey, and the look he gave her made her insides cold. He looked almost angry at her. Rey frowned. Sure her hem was now spattered with mud, and her hair was a mess. But what on earth did he expect?

“You are not wearing the proper riding outfit,” he said curtly, striding right up to her and plucking her from the horse, lifting he by the waist before he set her down on the floor. It was completely inappropriate, and the steward’s eyes next to him were so large you could see your reflection in them. Ben did not seem to give two whigs about it, and continued to glare at Rey, pulling his hands away from her waist like they had burned him.

“You’re a mess,” he told her.

“Which is exactly what you want me to be.”

“You could have gotten hurt.”

“As you desired.”

“Rey, you…”

“My lord, your mother requires me,” Rey said curtly, passing him before she entered the house. Ben glared up at Poe, who had watched the scene with much amusement. He handed the reins to the boys and looked at Ben.

“My lord,” Poe repeated, giving him a proper bow before he walked inside the house.

* * *

By the time Ben managed to walk back into his house, it was two hours later, and he could hear laughter and commotion coming from the portrait gallery. How odd. He had not heard sounds like that from this house in…in a long time. He stood just outside the gallery, feeling very much like an outsider in a place that was supposed to be his own home. He spotted Threepio looking very agitated as Rey laughed, shaking her head as his mother tried to instruct her in the art of dancing. Meanwhile three seamstresses were attempting to hem a sample gown to Rey’s lithe form. The gallery seemed to glow with the happiness radiating from inside.

Chaos. Laughter. Light. Things that Ben didn’t deserve to have so close by.

“Ben!” Leia said, looking up as she spotted him lurking in the shadows like he wasn’t the heir to the entire place. Like he wasn’t the Duke. “Could you help Rey? She and Threepio are very mismatched when it comes to the waltz.”

“I hardly think Lady Mothma will allow such scandalous dancing in her ballroom tonight,” he commented, stepping in to the room anyway, trying not to notice that the rest of the room seemed to stop completely. Artoo behind the pianoforte had ceased, Threepio had turned stiff as a board, dropping Rey’s hands. The seamstresses seemed to almost cower at the sight of him.

Then there was Rey, looking much less windswept and muddy as she did two hours previous, watching him with a mix of curiosity and annoyance.

“But the practice will be so good for her,” Leia smiled. “If I am to make her toast of the town, which I’m sure I will, she will need to know how to waltz. And I have heard many mamas comment on my son’s…lightness of foot.”

Knowing better than to say no to his mother, Ben opened his arms out to Rey, who accepted them stiffly. He adjusted their hold—lord it felt wonderful to have her so near. She looked away from him, as was customary for a waltz, but Ben tild her chin lightly with his hand.

“Keep your eyes on me,” he cautioned her, even as he struggled to keep looking at her astounding amber eyes. “And follow the count.”

He gave Artoo a nod, and the man started to play. Then they danced. Ben didn’t much enjoy dancing—he became skilled only because he was made to dance with at least two young ladies at every ball, but otherwise, he had no desire to. But he could have danced with Rey for the rest of time, leading her through the steps. She was luminous as she danced. Yes, she struggled with the steps and keeping her eyes on Ben, but after a few cautious movements, they were dancing through the gallery like they had been doing it all their life.

Something in Ben’s heart bloomed. It was emotion that he never thought he would feel. It was warm and strong, growing steadily in Rey’s gaze.

But the clock struck the hour and the spell was broken.

“Goodness, look at the time! We still have much to do before the ball. Rey, don’t forget to thank your dance partner, then we really must finish your gown for tonight.”

Ben looked at Rey, and realized that she was as breathless as he was. Her cheeks were flushed red as she gave him a little curtsy. She didn’t look at him as she muttered her thanks.

“Of course,” was all he managed to say. “I really should…”

Then, without further explanation, he left.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas, Reylos! It's Christmas Eve here in the Philippines, so it's practically the same thing to us. 
> 
> And yes, I have watched TROS, and I may be in the tiny party that enjoyed it! So much room for fanfic, which is just the way I like it. Let's discuss further on Tumblr (my username is crystanagahori), but please don't fite me!

Leia had not been joking when she described Lady Mothma’s birthday ball as a crush. Rey had never felt so constricted in her life—by her corset, her rightly coiled hair, by the people who were so close that she could smell their perfumes and see each individual hair.

Han had muttered something about avoiding someone and subsequently disappeared from the ballroom. Ben was nowhere to be found. Last Rey had heard, he had gone back to his own home on a much smaller, but much more prestigious address in Coruscant. Leia seemed nonplussed about the whole thing.

“Oh, there are the Ticos,” Leia said, smiling in a dark maroon dress and brown cape as she smiled as a pair of women in elegant red dresses, their wonderfully straight dark hair allowed to tousle and tumble down their shoulders. Rey felt woefully inadequate in front of them. “Paige and Rose! I did not think you would be back for the season.”

“Our travels were cut short by the First Order,” Paige, who Rey would later learn was the older sister, said with such fierce clarity that there was no doubt she knew exactly what she was talking about. Rey would have thought ladies openly discussing politics in a ball would be considered gauche, and it was. But Paige Tico looked like she couldn’t give two whigs about what others thought. “The House required the nobles back to Coruscant for an emergency vote. Clearly Lord Snoke has plans to take the Prime Minister position.”

“Our mother would want nothing more than for us to not talk about politics or strategize with the Resistance, so she dragged us to Lady Mothma’s for the night,” Rose, who was just as sharp in tongue as her sister, but with much more wit and kindness, smiled at Rey. “Clearly she was not aware of Lady Mothma’s political allegiances. Also, we’ve been hearing so much of your new companion, Lady Leia. It was practically the first thing on everyone’s lips as soon as we arrived.”

“Oh yes!” Leia exclaimed like she’d completely forgotten Rey was there. “Paige, Rose, this is Rey. My companion and future duchess of Tattooine.”

“Cor, I think not,” was Rey’s immediate response to the outrageous statement. She was sure there were at least five conversations that had ceased with both hers and Leia’s statements. Rey’s face bloomed red with shame and embarrassment, but after their second’s worth of shock, both Tico sisters smiled warmly at her.

“Rey,” Rose said, looping her arm around Rey’s. “I like you immensely. I can tell that you and I are already going to be very wonderful friends.”

She said that with complete seriousness, and Rey believed her. Even if her every guard was up as she stood in the crush with the rest of proper society, she felt herself relaxed around Rose.

“When my sister says she likes you, it’s for life,” Paige said with a friendly smile. “I say that with all affection for her.”

“Lucky me, then,” Rey said, as the doors to the ballroom finally opened, and the guests were allowed inside. Music started to play in the distance, and Paige was immediately beset by three suitors wanting to add her to their dance card. Leia and Rose led Rey to the refreshment tables, where Rose poured them each glasses of lemonade.

_So this was a ball_, Rey thought, looking around. It didn’t much differ from the country dances she attended in Bespin Cove, except everything else was considerable more expensive. There was also a significant number of the crowd making sure to watch everyone else, and Rey couldn’t help but wonder what they were waiting for.

“They’re waiting for something to happen in their boring little lives,” Rose explained when Rey dared to voice her thoughts out loud, making Leia chuckle and laugh. “What? It’s the truth!”

“I knew it was a good idea introducing you to each other,” Leia said, putting her glass down. “Now if you’ll excuse me ladies, I must greet Lady Mothma. I hear Lord Snoke and his ilk are arriving to show how bipartisan they can be, but we all know that’s a lie.”

“Ugh,” Rose rolled her eyes, but curtsied at Leia and Rey followed suit as the much older woman approached the lady of the house. Leia and Lady Mothma seemed to be close friends, giving no quarter to the rest of the onlookers and greeted each other as loudly and as warmly as possible.

“Who is Lord Snoke?” Rey found herself asking, nibbling on a square of pastry that turned out to be flavored with lemon. Delicious.

“Leader of the First Order, a nasty political party with designs to take over everything.” Rose said darkly. “Just last year, they shut down three foundling homes here in Coruscant to make way for new businesses to open. It was shameful. Imagine, thousands of children without a home because of his greed.”

A chill ran down Rey’s spine. She knew only too well how horrible life was for a foundling without a home. She wouldn’t wish it on anyone, certainly not to innocent children. And yet there was a man in her vicinity who openly rallied for it.

“My parents support the Resistance, of course, but it’s very difficult when one of the First Order’s top supporters is Leia’s son…”

Rey blinked. “Are you saying Be—Lord Skywalker is…”

A brief hush fell over the ballroom, and the crowds parted. Rey was all too familiar with the sensation by now, and she knew who it was. Ben strode into the room, looking very much like the Duke he claimed not to be. He looked dashing and handsome, looking at the room darkly as if daring anyone to contradict him. His gaze swept the room until he finally met Rey’s eyes.

And just like that connection zipped and sparked between them. Rey knew very well that if she stayed in this ball tonight, she would end up in bed with Ben again.

But he made no move toward her, simply stared at her as the onlookers and other guests started to whisper. Lord, Leia was well on her way to winning the bet if Ben continued to look at her like that.

Beside him, a much better dressed (yet more ignored) man with red hair snickered. The tallest woman in the room was standing next to them, looking very much bored with the whole affair.

“That’s Lord Hux and Lady Phasma,” Rose told Rey. “Lord Ben’s cohorts in the First Order. Lady Phasma is a Baron’s widow, which is why she holds the family’s political seat, but she’s been with Lord Hux since they were children.”

“And Lord Hux is…?”

“A Viscount,” Rose continued. “Has been in charge of Snoke’s political image for years. Not to be crossed. His family is very close to the Snokes, obviously.”

Wonderful. Rey would really rather not get involved in the politics of high society, but it seemed inevitable with Leia leading the Resistance, and Ben the First Order’s golden boy.

The trio moved forward, and the crowd seemed to normalize and acclimate to their presence. Rey could have sworn she saw Leia roll her eyes in the distance. In the back of the room, where older men in fine coats gathered with glasses of spirits much too strong to be lemonade, Han stood and watched the proceedings with mild concern.

“What does Be—Lord Skywalker do for the First Order?” Rey asked.

“Snoke has been grooming him as his second for years,” Rose shrugged. “There were rumors that he orchestrated the previous Duke Skywalker’s…disappearance, but those are rumors and people love to gossip. But now that he’s a Duke, I’m sure Snoke is more than pleased.”

A sick, sour bile feeling bubbled in Rey’s stomach, and she wasn’t sure why. It used to be easy for her to determine who to trust, and who not to trust around her, and while everything she’d heard about Ben so far told her not to trust him, her instinct was to keep letting him in, let him discover more about her.

She shuddered.

The music resumed, and Lady Phasma and Lord Hux joined in the dancing, involved in only each other, as Ben made his way to where Rose and Rey were standing. His eyes were trained only on her, not caring that the crowd was parting for him. His steps were awkward but commanding, even with his odd gait he looked determined and completely sure of what he was doing.

He looked hungry.

He looked at Rose first, his gaze very obviously conveying for her to leave. But either Rose was obtuse or did not want to be cowed, because she merely smiled at Ben and bowed, as was proper.

“Lord Ben,” She said icily. “Lovely for you to join a Resistance function.”

“I was invited in my capacity as an Organa-Solo, Lady Rose,” he explained with grit teeth. “And I do hate to disappoint. I was about to offer Rey a dance.”

“Rey is right here,” Rey bit out, glaring up at him. Ben nodded once and tilt his head toward the dance floor, where, joy of joys, a waltz was playing. Good Lord. “And why are you asking me to dance? I’m no lady.”

“Maybe so,” he said, and she hated that he agreed with her. “But it is customary for a son to lead his mother’s latest companion to dance first. It’s only polite.”

_Would it be too much for him to actually want to dance with me?_ Rey asked the universe, as if to curse it for her misfortune. Ben must have seen it as reticence, because he cleared her throat, as if to make clear that she had no choice in the matter.

“Your dance card?” He asked, raising an eyebrow at her like he fully expected her to fall over her feet handing him the card hanging from her wrist.

“You don’t have to dance with him if you don’t want to,” Rose cautioned. Rey smiled and squeezed the hand the Rose placed on her arm.

“I’ll be fine. I can handle him,” she said, holding up her wrist and allowing Ben to fill the card. He blew gently on the ink while looking straight into Rey’s eyes. Then he took her hand and slowly led her to the dance floor.

They placed each other in the same, familiar hold she had learned only hours before, and soon they were moving. Rey was very aware that she was being watched by the crowd, but it was not in a good way.

“People are staring,” she said, looking around furtively as they moved around the ballroom. “Quickly, trip me up so I become the disaster you want me to be.”

“I believe I said for you to keep your eyes on me when we dance,” Ben said, taking a moment’s break in the music to tilt her chin to him, and she was looking up at his dark eyes again, feeling a shiver that she hadn’t felt in three months. “Ignore them. You’re here with me. That is all that should matter.”

Rey wanted nothing more than to believe that was true. But for someone who had lived her life being overlooked, this was almost overwhelming. And for everyone who stared at Rey, she kept her eyes on Ben, on the way that he held her close, the way that he swept her expertly across the room. In that moment, she allowed herself to fantasize that they were actually together, that they were actually engaged to be married, and not for only a week.

Fantasies never did help Rey very much.

As soon as the music ended, the rest of the dancers clapped politely at the musicians, but Ben and Rey merely looked at each other. Was that…was that an actual smile on his lips?

“May I come to you tonight?” He asked, and Rey’s heart melted. It was one of the things she slowly realized she liked about Lord Benjamin Solo, that he always asked when it came to her. It was never a command, never asserting anything she didn’t want. Because nobody ever bothered to ask Rey is she wanted to or if she didn’t. Other people assumed her needs because she was a woman, because she was impoverished, because she had nobody to “speak for her.”

Well, bully them all.

“Yes, of course, my lord,” Rey was about to say, when she was interrupted by someone else.

“Lord Benjamin, perhaps you should introduce us to your mother’s new friend?”

The two of them stopped and immediately dropped their hands, like they had completely forgotten that they weren’t supposed to be speaking of such intimate things in a ball. Ben and Rey turned to the sources of the voice, and Rey nearly gasped. For who else would have approached them tonight but Lord Snoke himself?

Rey fels chills run up and down her spine. She had never seen a man who looked more terrifying. Lord Snoke’s face seemed to have been twisted beyond recognition by his own fault, his eyes beady and malevolent as he openly assessed Rey. His gaze felt like a violation, and she did not appreciate it.

This was a man that cost children their home.

“Oh indeed, please do,” a soft voice added, and another young woman joined their party. By contrast to the man on her side, she was beautiful, the kiding of stirking woman that was easily the toast of the town, and the diamond of the first water for the ton. Rey felt Ben go completely stiff beside her.

“Lord Snoke, Lady Netal,” he said, bowning as he nudged Rey to properly curtsy. “Please allow me to introduce Rey Simms, my mother’s companion.”

Lord Snoke did not bow, and neither did Lady Bazine, they did, however continue to stare, like they knew something she did not. Rey hated that feeling.

“I have heard much talk about you, young lady,” he said, and her skin crawled. “Is it true the Skywalkers found you in Bespin?”

“I did not think I had been in town long enough to be talked about,” Rey said, and she didn’t really know if it was the right or wrong thing to say, because she couldn’t look at Ben, not while he was so agitated and focused on not looking at her. “Are there not enough distractions for the ton already?”

Snoke laughed, and Rey wanted to cringe.

“A spit of fire, this one! I approve,” he said, and again, there was that unnerving feeling that Snoke was implying something else. “I look forward to seeing you more, Rey.”

She said nothing more, simply nodding, as if to let slide the fact that he had very rudely called her by her Christian name.

“We really must be going,” Rey slid her arm around Ben’s pushing him away from Snoke. “I think I see Lady Leia calling me over.”

“Until next time then,” Snoke grinned. Then he looked up at Ben, and his face turned ice cold. “I am aware you’re still on a deadline, Benjamin. Come to me tomorrow to make your decision.”

“Looking forward to it,” Ben had mumbled and said it so quickly Rey had almost missed it. She didn’t however, miss Bazine Netal walking up to him and placing a hand on his chest. While her arm was around Ben’s.

Rey saw red immediately. But Bazine paid her no mind, instead looked at Ben.

“Your broke off our engagement…for her?” She asked, acid in her voice.

“You broke it off. And we both know you only want me for my title,” he said, and Rey pluued her hand from his, too aware that everyone was watching, that she was caught in the middle of a scene she would rather not be a part of.

She turned her head and found Han speaking to the orchestra, and after a blink, another song started to play, the crowd distracted long enough to start dancing. By the door to the balcony, she saw Rose jerking her head toward it like, ‘here’s your escape!’

And Rey took it. She fled to the back, away from the predatory eyes of society, and straight i to where Lord Hux and Lady Phasma were clearly making themselves i decent in the shadows.

“Oh! Pardon me,” Rey said, turning around immediately and wishing she had not just seen Lord Hux’s mouth sucking on Lady Phasma’s nipple, because really, she would rather not remember it.

“Is that you, Lady Simms?” Lady Phasma’s voice held an air of amusement even as she gasped. The wet, sucking spund continued. Good god, Hux did not seem to give a care that Rey had seen them. Rey shpuld like to think that it was because his passion for Lady Phasma was overwhelming, but it was more likely because he didn’t think Rey would kick up a fuss.

“Not a lady, just Simms,” Rey corrected her, still looking away. Lady Phasma gave a breathy sigh.

“Of course, of course. Armitage, good lord—“

“Focus, my love,” Lord Hux teased.

“We just wanted to say that we like you,” she said. “Whatever Ben decides to do. Naturally Hux and I would never be openly supportive if he sided with the Resistance, but we would not refuse a friend a drink at the club from time to time.”

Rey had no idea what that meant.

“I thought Ben was with the First Order.”

“His allegiances are shaking, especially now that he’s inherited the Skywalker title. I’m not sure what Leia’s strategy was, bringing you in…”

Rey flinched. Thank god Phasma was too busy to see it.

“But it’s certainly caused a stir.”

“Good god, Hux and Phasma,” Ben’s voice barked. “Get a room, please?”

A laugh. Rey assumed that this kind of thing happened among the three of them quite often. After a few low, murmured words, Rey heard the door close. For some reason, she knew that once again, she and Ben were alone.

“I would rather not speak to you right now, my lord.”

“We’re alone. Tell me what you really feel,” he said almost sarcastically. Rey’s skin prickled as she felt him move closer. They were so drawn to each other, unable to avoid constant collision.

“I would rather not hear you say anything other than that I did an excellent job tonight,” she said, knowing she was all bluster at the moment. “Disaster achieved.”

“You were rude to Lord Snoke. That was not part of the agreement.”

“Perhaps you should have been more clear when you hired me for the job,” Rey spat. “Or perhaps you shouldn’t have aligned yourself to a man who stared at me the way he did, who took homes away from young children!”

Ben flinched, and it was the oddest reaction.

“Perhaps you shouldn’t have made a deal with a monster, then,” he told her. Rey frowned. It was so difficult to reconcile the man before her to the man she knew. It was almost like they were two people, a Lord who showed up when he felt vulnerable and warm, and a Ben Solo when he was attacked and angry. Rey much preferred the other to the one.

“And I couldn’t have stayed in the ballroom, clearly you were occupied by your fiancee.”

“Our engagement was never promised. Merely discussed.”

“And yet she staked her claim on you like you were some prized cat,” Rey shook her head. “It makes no sense to me that you would drag me away from my home, convince me that you don’t seek romance and companionship when clearly there was someone willing offer to the exact same thing inside that ballroom!”

“You flatter yourself if you think that you and Bazine were made the same offer,” he spat, and Rey instantly recoiled. She shot him with a menacing look, wishing she could make his entire form crumble into dust with a gaze, before she turned her heel and left again, following the natural path of the road until she spotted a familiar carriage.

“Finn?” she asked, and two heads jumped apart. Finn had been kissing…Poe. “Oh.”

“It’s not what you think!” Finn said instantly.

“It’s exactly what you think,” Poe said. “Are you going to report us?”

“God no. Just a little surprised,” she said, turning her head as if to make sure nobody was following her. Finn must have sensed her reticence, because he tilt his head slightly.

“Are you alright?”

“I just need to get home,” Rey crossed her arms over her chest. “I could borrow a horse…”

“Nonsense, I’ll drive you back,” Finn said, shaking his head.

“I’ll let Han and Leia know you went ahead,” Poe added, nodding. He gave Finn a quick kiss before he hopped off the carriage. “Just come back right after you drop Rey off. Love you.”

“Love you,” Finn said, and Rey didn’t see it, but she was sure that the other man was blushing. Poe gave Rey a quick wink and darted into the house. Finn helped Rey up to sit in front with him, and the both of them started their ride back.

“Tell me everything,” Rey told Finn, ignoring the stab of jealousy inside her as she listened to Finn talk about the love of his life.

* * *

Rey looked at herself in the mirror. She hardly recognized the woman who started back at her. There was still that hint of rouge on her cheeks and her lips, her hair was styled up by Leia herself, who insisted that nobody could do better than her. The dress that just five hours ago had been too big, too voluminous on Rey’s body fit her perfectly now, hiding away the slimness of her figure, making her skin seem less dark than it was.

She was dressed in green, and the color made her eyes seem more brown. And to top all of that, Leia had insisted on her wearing a pair of precious emerald earrings and a matching pendant necklace to complete the look.

She _looked_ like a lady. But somehow Rey still didn’t feel worthy of it.

“You look lovely, Miss,” Leia’s ladies maid, Dormé commented, smoothing the back of Rey’s gown. “I have served the Skywalkers since the time of Lady Padmé, and I think even she would approve of you for her grandson. If I may say so.”

“You may say, but I may not agree,” Rey said softly.

“Of course my lady,” Dormé said almost knowingly, and got in to the work of helping Rey undress and get ready for the evening. It had struck her as odd at first—surely she could do it herself. But when she realized the corsets and the bustles and the things required to attach to her body were attached at an angle she couldn’t reach, a lady’s maid came in handy.

Soon she was undone for the evening, wearing a silken robe over her usual nightclothes. Even that was a jarring sight—Rey in her old clothes in a room that was way too beautiful to be hers, even then it was only hers for a week. She was still looking at herself when the door opened, and she saw Ben’s figure through the mirror. She turned. He seemed a little winded, like he had run to her room. Which made no sense, the entire house could have heard him, Rey certainly would have.

But he looked at her like he was drinking her in, enjoying the view. Rey bristled, she was still pretty angry at him.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate that a guest of this home intrudes int he room of another guest,” Rey huffed, pulling her robe more firmly over herself.

“I did ask if I could come to you tonight,” he said almost sheepishly.

“Something amiss, my lord?” Rey asked bitingly.

“You look much too unkissed,” he murmured, crossing the room and capturing her lips in his. Wildly inappropriate, but Rey had long had the sense that the home of the Organa-Solo-Skywalkers had very little care for what was proper.

“Ben!” Rey gasped. Her lips stung, but in the most delicious way. How was it that she missed him, when she had only seen him moments ago? Even if she had been angry with him?

“We’re alone,” he assured her. “Everyone else is downstairs. The party has descended into some kind of drinking party of old Resistance heroes, and they won’t be home for hours. And until they come home, I have you.”

Ben kissed like no time had passed at all between them, like he had every right to do the same to her. Every limb in Rey’s body melted as he continued to kiss her, cradling her body in his arms to shield her from the world.

“I couldn’t stay away,” he told her. “I don’t have the strength to.”

“Me too,” Rey found herself agreeing, kissing him back, keeping him close because she knew she had no time with him at all. She still had questions, still had things she needed clarified, but right now, she didn’t care. She didn’t have enough time. And she was much too weak to say no. She didn’t want to say no. “Oh Ben. I missed you.”

“Not more than I have missed you,” he murmured into her skin. “May I touch you, Rey? Please?”

“Yes,” she said, her voice coming out in a breathy gasp, allowing him to lift her easily before he lay her on the bed, pushing her shift up, exposing her bare legs to him. A thrill ran down her spine as Ben placed a kiss on her ankle, following a line from there to the side of her knee, sucking on the skin of her inner thigh.

“I longed for you,” she heard him say, his breath tickling between her legs. Rey felt her back arch slightly as his lips danced over her. “You have no idea how much I longed for you.”

He licked inside her. And Rey promptly forgot everything else. Lord Benjamin Organa Solo, Duke Skywalker was a greedy lover, but his greed only stoked Rey’s pleasures. He drove her desire higher and higher, holding on to her thights as his mouth explored the point between her legs that she’d touched so often herself, but it didn’t feel quite like this. A large singer slipped inside her folds and her hips bucked off the bed, her hand over her mouth to keep anyone from hearing her.

“Damnation, Rey. You are so wet for me,” Ben murmured into her skin. “Did you miss me?”

“So much, my lord,” she grabbed a fistful of his hair, tugging the dark tresses. “So much.”

And although she’d spoken those words in the those of passion, it was still the truth. She had thought of him too often in those three months they were apart. But she missed him now, at this moment, missed him enough for three lifetimes because all she had with him was one week. It wasn’t enough. It was never going to be enough.

She pushed the thought away as she careened into her crisis, thighs clenching, her entire body shuddering as he rocked her into pure bliss. Ben gave her one last stroke with his fingers and delicately licked them, his eyes dark as obsidian as he looked down at her.

“Sweetheart,” his voice was low and almost threatening. “Show me how much you missed me.”

Ben tugged her legs back so that she was on the floor with him, and Rey settled herself inside him, taking him in slowly, inch by glorious inch. She used his chest to hold herself up as he placed one large hand steady on her waist, as the other grasped her breast. Then she circled her hips, moaning as delicious sensation filled her. Sexual congress had never felt like this before——as intimate was it was empowering. She felt disconnected from the world, but so close to Ben that she wanted more of him, more of how me made her feel.

She bent forward, bracing her elbows between his head as she devoured him with her kisses, leaving bruising marks on his akin with her lips. _There would be no one else,_ she convinced herself, _no one else that will make him feel like this. It will be his loss when you leave._

Not if. When.

Rey threw herself into the void of distraction, focusing on their joining. Ben’s grip on her waist became hard as he directed her movements, his hips canting against hers to encourage her faster. He raised his knees so he could brace himself on the floor as Rey sat up again, his hand on her breast sliding into her hand as she leaned back against his thoughts changing the angle of the thrust, allowing her to go much deeper than she ever thought possible. It was too temping to look down and watch where he entered her, but Rey wasn’t content to watch Ben’s rapt expression, listen to the sounds of his cries and curses, tasting his skin on her tongue and feeling his body move under her.

His body went taut, firm and tense, and very quickly, Rey found herself on the floor, practically buried in a tangle of Ben’s limbs as her crisis hit at the most random time—she was squeezing him dry as waves of pleasure threatened to take her under the current.

“Christ, Rey, god damn,” Ben was cursing the gods and his kinsmen as he wrestled with his own self control and pulled out of her. There was only a fraction of a second between then when he spilled his seed on Rey’s belly, the liquid dripping over her warm skin. Rey gasped. She’d experienced sex before, but she’d never seen a man…finish like this.

Ben must have seen the curiosity in her eyes, because he smiled (Lord Benjamin Solo didn’t smile too often, but when he did, he lit up the room, Rey’s world) and pressed his forehead against hers in a gesture that was almost…affectionate.

“I did that to prevent a child,” he told her, kissing the spot his lips could reach with very little care which one it was. “But that was…”

“I know,” Rey whispered, as his eyes shut. “We didn’t even make it to the bed.”

“Next time, sweetheart,” he assured her. “Next time.”

He looked spent, and exhausted, but Rey made no motion as Ben stood up and walked to her washbasin, and cleaned her body and his with a damp cloth. He placed lingering kisses on her skin, as if he was trying to remember what she tasted like, and kept forgetting. Eventually they were both clean, and the house was still silent, so Ben lay on the bed with her again, his arms wrapped around her as she leaned against his chest, watching the last of the candlelight flickering around them. Rey realized that she had never felt so comfortable and warm. So at peace.

“Ben,” Rey said gently, not quite sure how to broach the subject. “What happened to your uncle?”

A silence washed over them, and Rey could hear nothing, not even the sounds of the servants below, or the noise of Coruscant outside. It was funny how a room could contain entire worlds, and Rey’s entire world was centered here.

“When I was still the Earl of Alderaan, Lord Ren,” he explained. “I was an active member of the First Order. I enjoyed the power, the respect it afforded me. That I was in constant conflict with my family seemed a bonus.”

She chuckled, just because it was such an understatement.

“One year ago, Snoke introduced a proposal that would close three foundling homes in Coruscant. He wanted to make way for new factories,” he said, and Rey’s body froze. The way he said it was so matter of fact, like lives were not in the balance. Rey hadn’t grown up in a foundling home. And she knew more than anyone how places like that, while not perfect, were better than anything she had experienced. But the flat tone of Ben’s voice just erased all of that. She pressed her lips together, but kept listening. “My uncle, and by extension, my mother, was his greatest opposition. And I was so blind to everything, so intent on going against them that I…”

His breath hitched. Whatever he was about to say was going to be devastating, and nobody knew it more than him. And still, Rey kept silent.

“I handed Snoke the smoking gun to kill their campaign. I told them that my mother and her brother were foundlings themselves, and the First Order called it a bias, and used it as a reason to make all their arguments invalid. Facts were twisted, and the fight got so ugly that my uncle decided to leave once the vote passed. Three months later, the title went to me.”

“Bazine and I had an understanding, because Snoke had been so pleased with me he wanted to reward me with my efforts be allowing me to marry into his family. But the day my uncle left, the day my mother looked into my eyes and told me what happened, it was like I had killed them with my bare hands. My soul has felt fractured, split to the bone ever since. I have been trying to make up for it—I broke off my understanding with Bazine, had tried to steer clear of Snoke and his ilk, looked after Tattooine. Trying, anyway. But I don’t deserve the Dukedom, or a family of my own. The line will end with me, because I don’t deserve it. I don’t deserve this, I don’t even deserve you. And you, Rey, are a miracle.”

Rey was not going to be cowed by pretty words or self pity. She sat up and glared at Ben, and the flinch broke her heart. Nobody knew more than Ben Solo how wrongly he had strayed.

“No,” she shook her head. She took Ben’s hand and squeezed it, as if to reassure him that she was only being kind. “It cannot end that way, Ben. There is so much you can do to bring more good into the world than what you took away.”

“How?”

“It starts with telling your mother the truth,” Rey said gently. “The truth of how you regret what you did. The truth of you wanting to be better.”

“I am beyond her help,” he shook his head.

“You’re a kind man, Ben. You don’t realize it, but you are,” Rey caressed his cheek, as if to coax him back to her. “Eyes on me.”

He complied, and the conflict she sensed nearly broke her heart.

“We are composed of the choices we make. And I know that the next choices you make will be good ones,” she told him with a smile.

“I don’t think I’m strong enough to make those good choices,” he sighed.

“I disagree.”

“You always do,” he said affectionately, sitting up so he could kiss her.

“Will you come to me tomorrow?” She asked him, helping him dress, pushing away his fingers as she smoothed his jacked over his body. While undressing had been a moment of desperation and a need for things to happen fast, quick, and _now,_ redressing Ben Solo was slower, and much more intimate. She had no right to ask a Duke to come to her. If anything, if should be other way around.

“Any night that you would have me, Rey. I am yours,” He said, stealing one last kiss. “Now go to sleep. Who knows that schemes my mother has planned for tomorrow.”

“I’m actually looking forward to it,” Rey laughed, and it made him smile again.

As Ben closed the door behind him, a part of Rey thought he was never coming back. But the love that had blossomed in her heart was too strong to deny. She had fallen completely for Ben Solo, and she knew it would lead to nothing but trouble and heartache.

But she still had three days with him. That would have to be enough.

* * *

In the shadows of Falcon House, a figure loomed. He assessed the property carefully, taking note of entries, exits, servant entries and exits. She was here, the chit. He was about to make sure that she would never get away again.

Unkar Plutt tossed the bottle of ale he’d been ale he’d been drinking from and snickered before walking into the deep Coruscant night. It would have been easy to just walk up to the door and start banging, but there was a higher master to serve. He wasn’t about to give up his payday just yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas, Reylos! 
> 
> Yes, I have seen TROS, and I may be in the small party that isn't too devastated about it?


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wah, this chapter took me *forever* to write, mostly because I was on vacation, haha! But I'm back, and rearing to go! We're only a couple of chapters away from the end, and I just wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone who's read and liked and commented on this story so far, it means a lot!

After a few days at the Organa-Solo household, it became very obvious to Rey that the family simply did not ascribe to the concept of mornings. Rey, who had woken up at the crack of dawn since before she could remember, felt like she had completed a thousand things before Leia and Han stumbled into the parlor for breakfast. She had taken to riding with Finn in the mornings, just around the confines of the property. She found she had a lot in common with Finn—it was easy to laugh with someone who seemed to understand her easily.

Once that was done, they would have a small meal with Poe by the lake, sharing a small basket of bread, cheese and jam Poe would pilfer from the cook in the morning. Then Rey could read in the library or wander around the house until Threepio found her to let hwr know that Han and Leia were ready to eat.

In summation, Rey realized that nobility had too much idle time. It was almost maddening.

Today, both her hosts looked worse for wear. Clearly there had been no winners in the Resistance drinking game Ben had mentioned, and both the Marquess and the Marchioness looked like they could have used more time to sleep.

She walked into the room. Leia managed a smile, as did Han. Rules of society dictated that a gentleman must stand up for a ldy when she entered the room, but Rey never expected any of them to. As she was clearly, no lady.

“Rey,” Han’s voice was so gravelly it sounded like he was upset with her, but he merely nodded as Rey sat primly across Leia. “You ok? Poe said you didn’t feel well last night.”

Thank god neither of her hosts were looking at her, or they would have noticed the flush of pink that appeared in Rey’s cheeks. Just the thought of last night sent her mind reeling. It brought her right back to last night—her and Ben on the floor, the sweetness of their joining, the feeling of wonderful wholeness he brought her. Ben’s mouth between her legs, and—

“Are you sure you’re alright? You seem flushed,” Leia added, and Rey nearly jumped out of her skin.

“Yes! Fine! Perfectly fine,” she assured them, scarfing up her food to show nothing was amiss. “Yes.”

On her left, Han snorted a laugh from behind his coffee cup.

“We have…a full day today,” Leia seemed less than enthusiastic about it. “Please get ready in an hour.”

“May I ask where we’re going?” Rey inquired politely.

“I make a visit to the foundling home in Coruscant every week,” Leia explained. “There used to be more, but…”

_But Ben made sure they were closed down_, the words hung in the air. Rey realized that the air in the house was always thick with things unsaid. They weighed down what was once a happy space, and the family—the family what was here, at least—were suffocating in it.

_I don’t think I am strong enough to make those good choices._

Rey sighed as she sipped her coffee. She had three days. Three days to try to make things right, because she owed this family that much.

“Please be ready. If I don’t manage to get up, tell my son I love him,” Leia joked, sipping greedily at her coffee as Rey chuckled. Han regaled her with the epic tale of last noght, where it was just Leia against Wedge Antilles, and how shocked the entire room was that Antilles had managed to stand upright at all.

“I would have won if you didn’t take my last drink!” Leia pointed out, wincing at the sound of her own boice. Han smiled and pat his wife’s hand gently.

“Of course, princess. My fault entirely.”

* * *

The foundling home was enormous. That was Rey’s first theought when she and Leia crossed the threshold of the home. Bright, sunny and large, it was clear that this used to be an old nobleman’s home, converted for a much more useful purpose.

“It was one of my mother’s champion projects, donating her old homes to foundling homes,” Leia explained, as children of every age and color appeared, approaching Leia like an old friend, giving her curtsies and smiles. Leia smiled back warmly, and Rey felt her heart start fracturing. “This was the last that stood after Snoke’s law passed. I visit every week as a way to remain close to my mother.”

The former Duchess Skywalker was a brilliant politician and philanthropist, rivalled only by her twin children. Everyone who spoke of Padme Amidala spoke her name with reverence, gone too soon, with much good left to give the world. It seemed that the Skywalkers generous hearts were inherited as well.

“Okay, which one of you kids think you can actually beat me at Dejarik?” Han’s voice boomed through the hall as he walked into the threshold, and at least five teenagers looked up at him excitedly.

“What are we playing for, sir?” One of the kids asked. Han grinned and walked to the corner of the room where the table was waiting to be set up. Two other kids immediately hopped up to help.

“The usual,” Han said, taking a seat. “Honor, glory and extra cash.”

Kids crowded around him excitedly. Leia rolled her eyes good naturedly, but Rey realized that this was a usual occurrence. Han ended up hiring most of the teenagers to work in his estate—some became butlers or footmen, others moved on to trade. But it all started at the dejarik game at the parlor, where he would gleefully beat the kids.

Each member of the Organa-Solo house had a role in the house, it seemed. Leia was inc harge of speaking to the nuns, making sure they had everything they needed, plus handling the administrative matters. Han had a weekly game going with the much older kids of the house, which in Rey’s experience, meant a lot, as older children tended to fall to the wayside when nobody was there to vouch for them. Poe gave weekly lessons on arithmetic while Finn taught them other useful trades.

A child streaked past Rey and Leia, a misshapen lump of woven fabric on their head, a cross between a hat and a wig. Another child waved at them witha glove with two extra fingers.

“Nice to know your knitting comes to good use here,” Rey commented wryly as they waked past the sitting/play rooms.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Leia huffed, as they rounded a corner. “I have to talk to the head of the house. Will you be okay on your own?”

No, was Rey’s immediate answer, but she smiled anyway.

Rey wandered the foundling home, offering the children only small smiles and nods as she did so. A horrible feeling settled in her stomach, one that she hated. She didn’t like being here, didn’t like being on the other side of this. She’d known only too well what it was like to be in a place like this—waiting for someone to see you. To choose you. To love you.

In Rey’s case, none of those things ever happened. She’d escaped the home she was left in and found freedom at a high cost. Coming back here wasn’t a good idea.

The hallways blended into each other as she found it a little more difficult to breathe. It was getting harder and harder to separate her memories from reality. The sunlit hallway was long, much too long as she walked, nothing to guide her.

“Once upon a time there were four little rabbits,” a low, deeper voice filled the hall, making her stop in her tracks. She knew that voice. “And their names were…Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail and…”

“Peter Rabbit!” Several voices chorused in response. The low voice continued to speak as if blatantly unaware of his captive audience.

“They lived with their Mother in a sand-bank, underneath the root of a very big fir tree,” Ben was reading the book like he was reciting a dull sermon, but judging from the silence the children seemed to be enraptured anyway. Rey dared a peek into the room and saw him sitting at the head of the room, his long legs stretched foward as he held the book in his hands. Two children were carelessly hanging off both his arms, but he didn’t seem to notice. Three more were at his feet, giving him their full attention.

Rey wanted to laugh, but didn’t dare disturb them.

“”Now, my dears,“ said old Mrs. Rabbit one morning, ”you may go into the fields or down the lane, but don’t go into Mr. McGregor’s garden: your Father had an accident there; he was put in a pie by Mrs. McGregor."”

The children giggled.

“”Now run along, and don’t get into mischief. I am going out."”

Rey stayed for the rest of the reading. Ben added no flair or additional voices, but his voice was just so soothing and gentle that it drew the children to him instantly. Rey’s limited experience with children usually involved shouting and demanding for attention, but Ben, like most things, had it all under control. He was in total command of the room, capturing attention just by his reading.

Rey had to admit, it was very, very attractive.

He had spotted her gate crashing the performance long before, just when Peter Rabbit was contemplating entering McGregor’s garden. When the story was finished, Ben closed the book and handed it to the oldest child in the room.

“I expect you and your roommates to be able to read this for yourselves next week,” he said to the boy, whoe could not have been more than eight. “I can read the narrator parts.”

The boy nodded, and Rey suspected he would have saluted if given the chance. Ben gave him a nod before he stood up just in time for Rey to reach him.

“I didn’t realize your mother had roped you into this as well.”

“I have been reading to the children of this room since I could do it myself,” he said. “It’s the one thing I can do well.”

“Perhaps not the one thing,” Rey commented, and hated that her cheeks immediately heated as her brain supplied her with the memory of the night before.

“Indeed,” Ben’s lip quirked, and she knew that he was remembering too. They walked together out to the hallway, and Rey felt marginally better. “I would think you would not want to come here, given your history.”

Rey opened her mouth, and closed it again. It was unnerving, having someone understand you the way he seemed to understand her. She’d long abandoned thoughts of that happening for her. And from a duke, of all people.

“Lady Leia says that a duchess must always have time for everyone else, especially those who need her help,” Rey said, keeping her eyes trained on the floor.

“And do you agree?”

“Power comes with responsibility. Hard enough when people who have it use it to get more than what they deserve,” she said breezily, and she didn’t mean for their conversation to sound so political.

He said nothing.

“And those who can make changes choose not to,” she added, and this time he looked at her. “I know the vote is today. Finn and I talked about it this morning. It’s up to you to decide if Snoke becomes Prime Minister.”

“There will be no winners at Parliament, only the next party that will wreak its own sort of havoc,” he pointed out to her. “How do you think Snoke came into power in the first place? Certainly wasn’t because the people were happy with the Republic. We have to let go of it all. The First Order. The Resistance. Leave it all behind.”

“And leave you to your estates and lands?” Rey asked, shaking her head. “That’s not the kind of life that would help anyone at all.”

Neither of them were angry, just, two people having a casual conversation about politics. Sharing ideas, making points. Rey had never really thought she was at all capable of going toe to toe with someone, but as it turned out, she felt strongly about this. Snoke had a terror about him, a malevolence that destoryed good men like Ben, or Luke Skywalker. He shouldn’t be allowed more power.

The brush of Ben’s hand against her wrist brought her back to the conversation. He was looking at her earnestly, with those serious brown eyes. It made Rey feel like the only person in the world. It made her feel like he truly saw her. And was that not the most terrifying thing?

“I wanted to apologize,” he murmured gently. “What I said about you and Bazine.”

“She does not concern me,” Rey shook her head. “I am aware that we are not of the same rank.”

“That was not what I meant,” Ben shook his head. “We are in an impossible position. We would rather push each other away, and yet when we’re together…”

He didn’t finish his sentence, just inhaled sharply. As if words were not enough to express the breadth of his emotion.

“I feel it too,” Rey admitted, and it was dangerous to say so. She only had two days left. “May I tell you something? Something you are not allowed to repeat. Not to me, not to anyone else.”

“Anything.”

“I am jealous of thse children,” she said, the words escaped her in a whoosh. “That they have a family like yours that cares so much for them. I never…I never had anyone care for me, and—“

“I care,” Ben said, his voice firm and honest, his hand fully on her wrist now. “I care about you, Rey. I suspect I care about you more than I have any right to.”

“I just…I feel so alone sometimes,” she said softly, speaking truths into the empty hallway, her heart hollowed and emptied out. And here was Ben, probably the least emotionally available person she knew, listening to her. “Like I live in a world of my own, with nobody on the other side.”

“You’ll never have to be alone again,” Ben said gently, taking her hand. He seemed fascinated by the backnof her palm, brushing it with his fingertips, his eyelashes fluttering as he studied it carefully.

“Are you asking me to marry you?” She asked sarcastically.

“Maybe I am,” he said, and he’d said it so low and quiet that she wasn’t sure she’d heard him right. But before she could, she heard voices coming up on the corner.

“They’re at the end of the hallway, milord!” A child’s voice exclaimed. “I saw them walking close together.”

Ben dropped Rey’s hand and took three steps back, an exaggerated distance. She was just about to ask him about it when Poe rounded the corner, his dark curls bouncing as he led a group of children around the corner. All of them giggled and followed him happily, glad for the distraction.

“There you two are! Kids want to put on a little talent show, they want you to be the judge.”

“Me?” Ben asked, his brow shooting up. “I hardly think—“

“Sorry, My lord, they actually want Rey,” Poe shrugged. “Meet us at the courtyard in fifteen?”

“Be right there,” Rey smiled warmly as Poe’s group cheered and headed back to the courtyard.

“They want you,” Ben said behind her, his voice filled with mirth. “They are not the only ones.”

“Very cheeky, my lord,” Rey nudged him with her elbow. Somewhere in the distance, a bell rang to si gal the time. Ben needed to leave now if he wanted to make it to the government building on time. Rey fet her breath hitch. Wven Ben looked a little nervous. “Will you vote today?”

“I will do what I must,” was his only response.

* * *

Ben had not expected to fall in love. Not in this lifetime, where his sins outweighed any good he had done or deserved. His parents had fallen in love, deeply so, and yet when they fell apart, they fell apart just as strongly.

But when Ben fell in love with Rey, shockingly enough, it did not upset him. It didn’t make him worried or scared. In fact it gave him happiness, to know that such a wonderful person had come into his life, and made a place for herself in his heart. But what came after that, he didn’t know.

He stood in the entrance hall of Parliament, standing at the entrance just as the nobles were allowed to enter. The air was tense and still, and there were little words left to say.

“Lord Skywalker?” Lor San Tekka, keeper of the Parliament said, peeking up from the book where attendance was noted. “We should be ready for the vote in a few minutes. Do you know how you’re voting?”

Ben took a deep breath. He knew what he had to do.

“Yes.”

* * *

When Ben took the title Duke of Tattooine, he had overtaken his father as head of the family. All of the estates in the Skywalker name fell to him, including Tattooine. As his mother’s firstborn, Alderaan from the Organas and Naboo from the Naberries came to him, as well as his father’s own meager properties, Takodana and Falcon House. By all accounts, he was being a gracious son by allowing his parents to stay in the family’s seat in Takodana, in their Coruscant home, and renting his own set of apartments. But in fact, Ben just wanted the separation, and wasn’t prepared to take over everything unless he really had to.

So there was an unspoken agreement in the Organa-Solo households that the Duke was free to come and go as he pleased, that he never needed permission to be where he liked.

Today, he chose to be at Falcon House. Like it or not, the food was much better here, and after the tense environment of the Parliament vote, he needed it.

“What are we having?” His father asked, walking in to the drawing room like there was just another day. His boots and the hem of his pants were caked in dirt. He had probably just come from riding around the estate with Finn and Chewie. Coruscant was getting smaller and smaller every day, and becoming much too small for a rider like Han Solo. Then again, no land was ever big enough for Han Solo to ride in.

Ben used to love riding with his father, racing over hills and fields, feeling the power of their mighty horses underneath. He still enjoyed riding, but didn’t do it was frequently as Han. Didn’t need to escape proper society as much as his father did.

“Muffins, cake, blancmange and something called madeleines to eat with the jam,” Ben said dryly as his father sat beside him, pouring a cup of tea and dumping three spoonfuls of sugar into his cup. Exactly the same way Ben liked it. “A delicacy from the Hapes Consortium, according to Threepio. Your new cook is keen to experiment.”

Han was too busy eating to respond, nodding instead.

“Father,” Ben said, and he didn’t know why the word sounded so foreign on his lips. It was enough for his father to look up in confusion. Like he was making sure he hadn’t misheard him. “How…how did you know that you were in love?”

It was an innocent question. A stupid question, really. It made Ben sound like he was ten years old again, watching his father plan out riding routes in the drawing room as he sat in a corner to read. He’d asked his father a lot of questions just like this, and yet none of them were as important.

He was just about to take it all back, retract his question. But a grin spread across Han’s face like it was the best thing he’d heard the entire year. He leaned back on the brocade of the couch, scratching his chin as he nursed his cup of tea. Looking like the wisest man in the world, even if Ben was too aware that this was not the case.

“Your mother finally get to you, hm?” Han asked, retrieving a flask from the inside pocket of his jacket, and pouring whatever liquid he had into his cup. He offered Ben some, and poured when Ben nodded.

“Mother has nothing to do with it,” he drank from his cup. The alcohol butned his throat, but in the best way possible. “It was just a question.”

“Well, you have to remember we fell in love during a war,” Hand pointed out, his face darkening as it always did whenever someone brought up the fall of the Empire, giving way to the rise of the Republic. Before that his father had been a smuggler, running less than legal items from one place to the other. Leia once said that it was impossible to separate Han from his former profession, and on that, Ben actually agreed.

“Things happened, and they happened fast, because you didn’t know what would happen the next day. Didn’t know who would come back, so to speak. I didn’t have any stake in it, hell, I could have walked away from it at any point. But someone had to make sure your Uncle Luke didn’t fall into a ditch when he was trying to find a diplomatic solution. Had to make sure your mother would be able to live with her choices at the end of the day. I fell in love with your mother because she actually needed me. Because she saw me for who I was exactly, and she didn’t think it was all bad.”

“Really?” Ben snorted.

“She was worth fighting for,” Han seemed to finally settle for the right turn of phrase and nodded in satisfaction. “It didn’t make anything easy, but it was worth it.”

Ben considered his father’s words and compared them with how he felt for Rey. Would he fight for her, if he had to? With her, if needed?

“Oh Ben, there you are, I was just telling Rey—“

Ben didn’t know what it was that made him do this. Maybe it was the conversation with his father, his exhaustion after the Parliament vote, tense and dreary as ever, or maybe it was him asking Rey to marry him at the foundling home. But the moment she entered the room, he stood up. He stood up and all the alcohol rushed to his head, intoxicating him as she entered the room. She had changed out of the dark brown coat she was wearing at the foundling home, now dressed in a moss green dress, bringing out the color of her eyes, the intensity of her gaze.

And that was when he saw all the color drain from her face, just as his mother’s lit up in triumph.

“You…” Was all Rey managed to say.

“Well!” Leia said, clapping her hands like her only son’s entire world hadn’t spun out of its own axis, as if nothing had changed, even if everything had. “That clears up some things! Darling, you said you needed to go into town? To purchase stationery?”

It was the ‘darling’ that pulled Ben right out of the moment because for the life of him, he had never, ever heard his mother use that term of endearment—not to him, not to Han, not even to the horses she loved so much.

“Before I’m dead, Ben.”

That made Han laugh. Leia moved across the room to sit on the arm of the chair Han was lounging in, picking up a madeleine and taking a bite. Ben had an odd glimpse of his parents from the past—before the titles and the politics and intrigue, while they were just Han and Leia. And Ben wanted to strangle his parents.

“No need to be so dramatic, mother,” he said, downing the rest of his spiked tea. He felt too vulnerable, too exposed, in a way that he had never allowed himself to be. Rey was still looking at him like this was the first time she haf ever seen him, and he hated the feeling.

“Yes. Town. I’ll take a horse,” he said, clenching and unclenching his gloved fists, his mouth pressed together in a hard line,

“No need. Rey will go with you so you can take a carriage,” Leia said blithely, as Han poured whiskey into her cup, which did not have tea.

“What?” Both Ben and Rey said at the same time.

“You wanted to buy Rose Tico a gift, if I recall,” Leia said. “You were just telling me before we entered the drawing room. You wanted to hire a hackney. Duchesses do not take hackneys, and they do not shop unescorted.”

“Okay, but…”

“Ben can pay for it.”

“Let’s go,” Ben shook his head.

“But…”

“It’s useless to argue with her Worshipfulness when she’s made up her mind,” Han helpfully informed them. “You should go, while the good shops are still open.”

* * *

Rey was well aware that Ben was watching her as they sat across from each other in the carriage. It was one of the family’s smaller conveyances, one that ensured that Rey and Ben’s knees were always touching.

“What?” She asked him almost testily.

“You’re upset with me,” he stated as a matter of fact, like he could read her so easily. How could he do that?

“You stood up for me when I walked into the room,” she said. “You never did that before.”

“I do that when a lady enters.”

“And the crux of our problem is that I am not a lady!” Rey exclaimed, her cheeks burning with frustration. “Are you in love with me?”

“Yes.”

“No,” Rey shook her head. “That is not something you simply make a joke of, my lord.”

“Is there anything about my current countenance that suggests that I am joking?” Ben’s eyebrow rose in challenge, and Rey felt her chest deflate. So that was it. He was in love with her, and now she truly couldn’t stay. Because there was no way, absolutely no way that there would be a good end for this. She was far from being the toast of the town, and was exactly what Ben had wanted her to be—the epitome of disaster. Did his love change any of that? She didn’t think so.

The carriage pulled to a stop, and Rey was so stunned that she actually waited for Ben to hop off of the carriage before she did. Her foot slipped, and Ben immediately wrapped his arms around her, gently placing her feet on the ground.

And Rey Simms lost all sense. They could have stood there for an eternity and she would not have noticed, not when she was in Ben’s arms.

_Are you in love with me?_

_Yes._

He set her down on the ground, and cleared his throat, glancing furtively around the busy street. Rey remembered where they were, that anyone could recognize Ben and send rumors flying. This wasn’t a safe place.

They entered the stationery together, and Rey was instantly overwhelmed. Inks in what looked like every possible color were on display, in various bottles. Quills of different plumages were offered, but the glass cabinets displaying the fountain type pens seemed more fascinating. Stacked neatly in the back were papers of every size, color and kind. And while Rey looked around everything with awe and fascination, it was a poor rival to Ben’s when he saw a new display of Iron Gall ink.

“Made with the lava rocks of Mustafar,” he told Rey, dipping a pen in the sampler. Then his hand just…danced over the paper. It took a moment for her to realize that he had written her name, in whorls and swirls that made it look beautiful. Rey very quickly realized that it was highly irregular for a nobleman to purchase his own writing implements—surely he had a valet for that sort of task? But this was Lord Benjamin Solo, extremely particular about everything in life.

“That is quite a skill, my lord.”

“Remind me to write you a love letter sometime.”

It made Rey sad that she would never get to remind him to write her a letter, that she would have no right to any of it by the time the week was over.

“I shall leave you to complete your purchases, my lord,” Rey told him with a smile. “I think I see a pastry that Lady Rose will like.”

“I cannot make promises about my speed,” he informed her, his face adorably caught in a frown. Had he been just another man, and this been just another shop, Rey would have loved to tiptoe up and smooth those creases on his brow, kiss the corner of his luscious lips. But there would be none of that. “I shall meet you there.“

Rey gave him a little curtsy and exited the stationery, crossing the street to the patisserie next door. She stood by the window, marveling at the baked delights within. The Mos Eisley Patisserie had tall towers of Croquembouche glimmering with caramel and sugar pearls, the prettiest chocolate bonbons in gold wrapping, delicate shells of macarons with a slight sheen, all begging for the customer to try, tempt or taste. Rey found herself licking her lips before she even entered the shop.

In her week at the Falcon House, she had experienced all manner of luxury, but none seemed as special to her as the food. The amount of it, the care placed in each and every bite floored her, and while it made her a particularly slow eater, it made her a happy one, indeed.

She was just about to reach for a truffle available for sampling when a gruff voice stopped her in her tracks.

“And just what do you think you’re doing?”

Rey instantly recoiled. A rough voice, her hand where it wasn’t supposed to be, they were things that happened to her when she was younger, things she thought she had already escaped.

“I’m sorry, I thought these were free to try,” she said. The proprietor’s face turned beet red, and he grabbed Rey’s wrist with a force that made her stop still in her tracks. No, no. She couldn’t go through with this again.

“Free samples are for paying customers only,” he sneered, yanking Rey’s wrist back.

“Unhand me, sir,” she steeled the limited courage she had. She tried to wrangle herself free from his grip, but it was difficult to summon the strength to do so when you were being restrained the way you never wanted to be again. “I am the guess of the Marquess and Marchioness of Alderaan.”

The proprietor laughed in her face, cold and mocking.

“If you’re the guest of the Organa-Solos, then I must be the head of the Trade Federation,” he sneered. “Now get out of my shop.”

He shoved her out the door, nearly knocking Rey to the street. She had barely been able to process what happened when strong hands caught her by the arms, and the next thing she knew, she was looking into Ben’s face. He looked…worried.

“What happened,” he said, his voice low and threatening. It reminded Rey of an oncoming storm that was still deciding where it was going to make landfall. Rey shook her head and tried to pull herself together, forcing a smile.

“Nothing, nothing. I just didn’t think Lady Rose would enjoy pastry, after all.”

“Rey, you’re shaking,” Ben pointed out, and it was as if he had spoken the action into truth, because Rey felt her entire body shiver, and she could barely keep herself together. “Tell me what happened.”

“Nothing happened, I–”

Ben released her from her grip, sweeping past her to enter the pastry shop. The shop bell rang and the proprietor’s smile grew ten times as big at the sight of Ben’s thunderous glare.

“Lord Skywalker!” He exclaimed, bowing much deeper than what was appropriate. “It is truly an honor–”

“Take this down,” Ben told him, gesturing for the man to write. “Two of your tallest croquembouche towers, a whole jogan fruit cake, Sic Six layer cake, three of each of your finest macarons, and your entire stock of madeleines with the earl grey tea jam. Have you got everything?”

“Yes, my lord.”

“Add a box of your fine truffles, I believe the lady would prefer ones filled with caramel,” he said, glancing at Rey, who was currently gaping at him as if he had three heads. let it be said that Ben Solo was a master of surprise–she never quite knew what he was going to say or do next. He looked at her almost tenderly, as if to assure her that he was making everything right, but how?

“My lord, this…lady…” the proprietor said, his brow wrinkling at Rey. Ben’s gaze turned sharp and he shot the proprietor with an angry glare, as if daring him to complete the sentence.

"This lady is the companion to the Marchioness of Corellia, Naboo and a very special friend of my family’s,” Ben said before he turned to Rey, and his gaze just…softened. Like she was the most important thing in this entire shop, in the entire world. It made the love that Rey desperately wanted to keep for herself bloom like a flower in the night, so beautiful that it made her breath catch.

She hadn’t planned on falling in love with anyone, much less a Duke. But here she was, on the receiving end of the sweetest of gazes, her heart melting, all because of that softened gaze of his.

“So, caramel?” He asked her.

“My favorite,” she lied through her teeth, trying with all of her strength to maintain her cool. But it was difficult, with Ben looking at her like that.

“Excellent,” he grinned, grinned! and turned back to the proprietor of the shop, holding his hand out for the list. The proprietor handed him the list, and Ben made a huge show of checking the list, one by one and nodding. Then, he folded it up and pocketed it. “Thank you.”

“My lord,” the proprietor said, clearing his throat. “I will need the list to complete your order.”

“You assume that I will ask you to fulfill my order,” His brow rose. “Come on now Rey. We wouldn’t want to keep his competitor waiting. I believe Dex at the bakery next door would be more than happy to fill our order.”

“My lord! That can I do to change your mind…?” The proprietor looked like he was about to go into spasms at the sight of Ben’s glare.

“It’s too late,” the storm returned just as easily as it retreated, almost like it never really left. “You lost the opportunity the moment you kicked her out of your store. You have also lost the commission of my house, my mother’s, and once word of this gets out, her friends’, I’m sure. Lady Paige Tico is getting married in the summer, and I’m sure Dex is more than up to the task of the most lavish confection of the season.”

“But, my lord—!”

“Good day, sir.”

Then they left the shop before Rey could say anything. She looked behind her, then up at Ben, whose face hadn’t changed at all. They were actually _walking_ to Dex’s, Ben more than determined to fulfill his promise of revenge.

“Ben, are you really doing this?” Rey asked, tugging him back. “Ben!”

“Of course I am!” He practically exploded, whirling around to face her.

“You didn’t have to do that,” she shook her head. “You didn’t have to be so angry, certainly not on my behalf.”

“And _that,_” he said, looming over her. “Is what makes me angry most of all. I have seen you get angry at me for trying to kiss you, for so much as breathing close to you. But when someone tried to make you feel less than yourself, made you feel like you didn’t belong, you didn’t fight. And I didn’t understand that at first, but now I think I do. Nobody’s ever fought for you, have they?”

Rey’s breath caught in her throat as his words pierced through her. Of course nobody had ever fought for her, she didn’t have anyone but herself to rely on. And when she wasn’t ready to fight, there was nothing she could do. Didn’t he understand that? She was nobody, nobody at all!

“It will never happen again,” Ben assured her, that softness in his gaze blossoming on his face again as he touched her, so tenderly and much too intimate for such a public space. “I will never allow it to happen again.”

Damnation. Rey was in love with him. And she didn’t think she could bear to leave him now.

In the distance, she registered the sound of someone calling their names, but she was the one who looked up first. Ben seemed to be preoccupied by holding on to her wrist for the whole of society to see, gently twirling a finger around a loose tendril of her chestnut brown hair that had fallen out of her chignon from the proprietor’s rough handling of her.

“Poe?” Rey asked, as the white stallion pulled up just in front of them, and there was Poe Dameron, iliciting a few twitters from the ladies walking by. It was hard not to, the man oozed charm regardless of if he chose to or not. “Is something the matter?”

“Lord Han wants you both back at the house at once,” he told them, his face serious. “There was a security breach at Falcon House last night, and it’s not safe out in public. And Leia has taken ill, my lord, you really have to—”

Both Ben and Rey didn’t need to be told twice. They shared a look, and scrambled back to the waiting carriage, Ben barking orders for the coachman to make haste on his way back to Falcon House. While Ben’s face was hard and firm, his lips were tense, and his hands were clenched in fists. Rey reached out and uncurled his hands gently, placing them in hers. There was nothing for her to do but to murmur promises that Leia was fine, unsure if she really believed them herself.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter to go! Thank you so much for all the love you've all given this little fic so far. I'm surprised at this chapter's length, I swear I didn't intend for it to be this long.

Ben and Rey burst into Falcon House with no pre-emptive warning or greeting. Giving very little care for propriety, Ben started hollering for Threepio or his father, or Chewie, or _anyone, really_ to tell him what was going on. Poe was still at the stables settling his horse and the carriage, and there was very little time to think about other things when Ben couldn’t find his mother.

He barely registered Rey reaching for his arm, didn’t feel it until she started to squeeze his hand, as if to reassure him that things would be fine. He would always remember that moment in the carriage with her, where she bravely faced his fears and pushed them aside.

“Mother!” He hollered as they walked through the entry where Threepio was noticeably absent. Poe had explained that Chewie and Finn had taken the second carriage to fetch the physician, so understandably enough, there were very few people in the entry.

“My lord, the Marchioness is in her room—“ Sabé, his mother’s lady’s maid managed to say as she descended the stairs, and Ben didn’t need to be told twice. He dashed up the stairs, soothed only by the sound of Rey following behind him. He had reached for her hand at some point, as if using her as a source of strength, as they stopped in front of his mother’s room. The door was slightly ajar, and he could hear his father’s voice inside, although he couldn’t tell what the mood was. Ben stepped inside…

And realized that his mother was certainly not _dying_, as he had imagined.

Lady Leia Organa Solo was sitting in bed with her knitting needles, arguing with her husband. The only indication that anything was amiss was that her hair was loose, brushed but unbraided, which had he had not seen since he was a child. Well, that, and the fact that her stockinged foot was propped up on a pillow.

“You’re not dying,” Ben announced deadpan, as both his parents turned to look at him in confusion. “Poe said…”

Poe hadn’t used the words, ‘dying’ though, had he?

“He said you fell,” he finally said, feeling his throat constrict for reasons he couldn’t understand, feeling his emotions finally catch up to his body. His fists clenched, and he’d forgotten how to speak.

“She did,” Han said, glaring at his wife. “Down one flight of stairs after she wasn’t watching where she was walking. I already sent for a doctor, and yet Her Worship insists–”

“It’s just a little sprain, Ben,” Leia’s voice was surprisingly soft as she held a hand out for her son. “I’ll be fine.”

He didn’t know what came over him, but he moved to his mother and wrapped his arms around her waist, burying his face in her body like he used to as a child. Very little in his life brought comfort as much as this motion, his mother running her hand through his hair, saying no words but making him _feel_ better, as if she had control over an invisible force around him.

“I’ll get some ice,” Rey said gently behind him, and Ben had almost forgotten that she was there. “It might help with the swelling. But I have to agree with Han, Leia. You will need to get checked.”

“Well, if you insist,” Leia said, suddenly very docile. Then she sighed very dramatically, enough to make Ben pull away slightly from her grasp. “Oh well. It can’t be helped then. Han, please tell Sabe that we will be unable to attend Lord Snoke’s Ball tonight.”

Ben did not have the patience for this. He really did not.

“Mother,” he managed to say through grit teeth. “Did you…”

“Plan to fake sickness so I don’t have to attend the ball tonight? Yes,” Leia said, and Ben thought it was very wise of her to stop stroking his hair, and very wise to tell him the truth. “But I certainly did _not_ plan to fall down a flight of stairs in the process.”

“You know what they say about karma,” Han muttered from his place next to Leia on the bed.

“Han!” For her injury, Leia managed to swat her husband in the arm, but wince at the same time.

“Aha, you _are_ hurt!” Han exclaimed, like it was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to him. “I knew it.”

“I’m going to murder my parents,” Ben announced to nobody in particular, still kneeling next to his mother with his arms wrapped very loosely around her. “It will be easier for everyone if I just murder my parents.”

“As long as you marry Rey after, I will die happy,” Leia teased, and Ben finally stood up, presumably to jump out of the window. What was happening to him? In a span of two minutes, he’d run the entire gamut of emotions–anger, happiness, despair, fear and had considered matricide, patricide and self-defenestration.

“Here you go,” Rey announced, reentering the room with a bowl of ice and a wrapped little bundle of the same thing. She took Ben’s place at Leia’s side and fussed over his mother’s swelling foot.

Was this was being in love was going to be like for him? Ben wasn’t quite sure if he enjoyed it. But seeing Rey talking and laughing with his parents, it made him feel…whole. Like he’d walked into the one thing he thought was missing in his life.

Strange.

“Anyway, you and Ben are set to attend Lord Snoke’s Ball,” Leia was saying. “They will announce the results of the vote there, which I find very presumptuous on his part when he volunteered to host the fete.”

“It seems to me that being a noble is as much partying as it is politicking,” Rey said the understatement of the century as she passed Han the ice bowl to place on the night table.

“Wear the rubies tonight,” Leia said, squeezing her hand. “They’ll bring out those lovely eyes of yours.”

“That’s your plan to make her the toast of the town?” Ben asked sarcastically. “Rubies?”

“Oh hush, Ben. I have a plan, and it’s working very well so far,” Leia absolutely preened like she dared either Ben or Rey to contradict her. “The cook prepared a tea service for the two of you before you have to get ready.”

By then Finn had run up to the room and announced that the physician was here. Ben and Rey quickly excused themselves after, and were already halfway out the door when something occurred to Ben.

“Poe mentioned something about an intruder?”

“Right,” Han said like it had completely slipped his mind that there was a security breach in the house. “Finn was in the stables around midnight last night when he saw someone standing underneath the window in Lady Leia’s study, holding a sizable brick.”

“He fled as soon as he saw me, my lord,” Finn assured him, as if it wasn’t odd at all that he was still lurking in the stables at midnight. He was the horse master, there was no need for him to lurk in the stable so late. “I don’t think he would have managed to throw the brick up to the window, it was quite heavy, but he seemed intent on causing some damage.”

“Is there anything valuable in your study, Mother?” Ben asked curiously. Leia shook her head.

“Just paperwork. Household bills and some old letters. That was right next to Rey’s room, did you hear anything, dear?”

Ben immediately froze. If it had happened at midnight the night before, Rey would have been much too preoccupied with their mutual sexual pleasure than to listen out the window for intruders. Thankfully it was much too dark for anyone but Ben to see Rey’s cheeks flush red.

“N-no, my lady,” she lied through her teeth. “I’m quite the heavy sleeper.”

“Nevertheless,” Ben said, just so they can change the topic of conversation, and looked at finn. He was aware that Finn did not have the highest opinion of him, as well he should, but Ben couldn’t resist. “I realize it’s outside your scope of duty, but you and Chewie will have to be the ones to look into the breach and patch it up.”

“My lord–” Finn looked helplessly at Rey.

“Lady Rey does not have the answers, Master Finn,” Ben said, raising an eyebrow. “May I trust you with this task or not?”

“Of course,” Finn gave Ben a little bow and left the room. Ben looked at Rey, who seemed a little worried for her friend. He decided to ignore that, and went downstairs for tea.  
  


* * *

Hours later, Ben had to concede that had rubies been the extent of his mother’s plan, they would work.

Rey looked lovely in rubies. The dress she wore hid away most of the muscle she had gained from hard work and labor, and danced around her form, merely teasing the body that Ben was very familiar with underneath the folds of her gown. Leia had selected a dress with a lower cut bodice, creating a canvas where the elaborate rubies could be placed. The dark, sumptuous red on the stone did bring out the color of her eyes, but it was more than that.

They made Rey look like she was a woman to be reckoned with, a woman with no fear and no qualms or care for society. She wore no other adornment, except for very light touches of rouge on her lips and cheeks, and he had seen much more elaborate hairstyles on his mother when she went out for a shopping trip. But they served the purpose of drawing the eye to Rey’s face, her inscrutable face that was unbent by society, unbroken by the things that he knew scared her.

In short, she looked like Ben’s equal. And if that was his mother’s plan, then he applauded her for that.

They stood at the entrance to Exegol Hall, the Snoke’s country seat in the nearby heath. The family was clearly expecting nothing less than total victory that evening–the entire house was decked in the black and red banners of the First Order, every pomp and circumstance that could be afforded purchased especially for tonight. It was meant to intimidate, to ensure that there was little doubt as to who owned the place. Had Ben come here alone, it would have terrified him.

But not today.

Rey’s grip shifted on his arm and he looked at her curiously. She shook her head and smiled.

“I just…I’m happy to be here with you,” she told him. “And I should be terrified, but I am not.”

He placed his right hand on hers, a gesture he had seen his father do when he was trying to be affectionate with his mother at balls.

“I know,” was all he responded as the doors in front of them opened.

“Lord Benjamin Organa-Solo, Duke of Skywalker, and his companion, Lady Rey Simms of Bespin!”

Ben swore that the entire ballroom had fallen still at the sight of them at the top of the stairs. Snoke insisted on announcing every guest that walked the halls of Exegol, as if to praise his subordinates (because men like Snoke had no partners or friends) and to condemn his enemies for even daring to step into the threshold. In other parties Ben had attended here, guests tended to ignore that, unless they were trying to achieve a certain effect.

Not tonight, however. It was as if the effect of the two of them together had stunned the room into momentary, curious silence, unsure of how to make of the couple. Ben glanced at Rey to check on her, and she held her head up high, barely glancing at the crowd, instead keeping her eyes exactly on the one man who looked sickeningly pleased that they were both here.

“I cannot tell if he’s livid or excited,” Ben commented dryly as they slowly descended the stairs together.“I suppose neither of those options holds anything good.”

“That depends on how you voted,” Rey said beside him. Ben sad nothing else as they made it to the landing, and the crowds parted to let them pass. He was aware that his attendance might have signaled to Snoke how he had voted in that afternoon’s election, rather than the fact that his mother had made him go tonight. Ben was happy not to dissuade him from that notion.

He said nothing in response, there was no need to pull Rey into the mess he had left himself in. Instead he held out a hand to her and asked if he could put his name on her dance card.

“My aren’t we presumptuous?” Rey asked him, raising a brow in his direction.

“Not presumptuous. Hopeful,” he corrected her, and his heat gave a little flip inside his chest when Rey took his hand and allowed him to fill her card. He delicately touched her wrist, and since he was in close contact anyway, gave it a little kiss. He could swear he heard scandalized gasps in the background.

“My lord!” Rey exclaimed. “People are watching!”

“Let them,” was all he said before he swept her into his arms, with all the confidence of a man who knew his exact place in the world, confidence that he was dancing with the woman he loved, and that there was nothing else in the world that could ruin the moment.

Not even Bazine Netal marching toward them in an angry huff. She didn’t even have the courtesy to allow the song to end before she made her approach.

“My lord?” She asked sweetly, and immediately Ben knew something was wrong. Ben stopped dancing, but didn’t lower his or Rey’s hands, and gave her a glare that made it clear that she was very rudely interrupting. Rey blinked at her in surprise, as if she had completely forgotten that Bazine, as Snoke’s daughter, had hosted the ball. Technically, the ball was held for the occasion of her engagement to a Moff in the army, but everyone knew a convenient excuse when they heard one.

“Pardon my intrusion,” she continued, like she wasn’t sorry at all. “But I do need to speak with you about your…guest.”

“If you wish to say anything about Miss Simms, you will say it in front of both of us,” Ben said, still not lowering his hands.

As far as declarations went, that was pretty crystal clear. He was also sure that every eye on the ballroom was on them now. How could it not be? Bazine was being incredibly rude.

He thought the show of command would intimidate her, but Bazine actually grinned, like that bloody cat of Rey’s every time it successfully spooked Ben with a hiss in the hallway.

Not a good sign.

“I know,” Bazine said decisively, shooting Rey a scathing glance. “I have friends in Bespin, and they told me the truth about your mother’s companion.”

Murmurs spread through the crowd. This time Ben did lower their hands. If Bazine continued her line of discussion, she would be calling Rey a fraud and Leia a liar. Neither of which he was about to take lying down.

“Be very careful with what you are about to say next, Lady Netal,” Ben’s voice lowered, and he took a step toward Bazine, who seemed to relish in the attention. “Duels may no longer be legal in Coruscant, but I am not afraid to demand satisfaction from your fiancee.”

“I said nothing,” Bazine said innocently, her voice still saccharine sweet. “Only that I know your secret, _Miss Simms._ I will not hesitate to use it to my advantage. But for now, I believe my father would like to speak to you, Lord Ren.”

Lord Ren was his old title, the title he had before he betrayed his uncle. When others, like the proprietor called him that, it was an innocent mistake, one he was willing to let pass, because he had been Lord Ren for so long. But hearing it on Bazine’s lips tonight made it sound like a reminder. A reminder of who she really knew him to be, of who he _really_ was. Lord Skywalker was the uncle he had disappointed, the uncle who he had let down.

“Excuse me,” Rey very suddenly said. “I believe I will have a glass of lemonade.”

Then she shot Ben with that assessing, green gaze of hers before she gave him the proper curtsy, then turned and fled the dance floor. Ben watched helplessly as Rey melted into the crowd, at the edge of which, he spotted Rose Tico glaring at him like he didn’t just buy a patisserie’s worth of sweets for her that afternoon.

“Shall we?” Bazine asked, looking for all intents and purposes like a lady, when all Ben could see was the venomous snake inside of her. She slipped her arm through his without his permission, and Ben held it out to make sure she kept a very polite distance from him. Anything more than that and he would be accused of being rude.

He gave the edge of the ballroom one last glance, assuring himself that Rey was safely ensconced in her friends’ presence. But the moment was too short, and he didn’t know where she was before he was being led in the direction of Lord Snoke, standing at the edge of the ballroom.

Everyone expected him to be much, much bigger than he was. Surely a man of such influence and bold ambition would fill much larger boots? But no. Snoke seemed to be made of only half a man, the other half replaced with a sick, spindly creature of terrifying and ancient power.

He was focusing that power on Ben now as he and Bazine approached, one gnarled hand flexing over a ruby red signet ring bearing the crest of the Snoke Family.

“Ah Lord Skywalker!” He said, as if he hadn’t been watching Ben and Rey from the moment they entered the ballroom. “How gracious of you to join my daughter’s engagement party. Such a shame it was not to you.”

“Indeed,” was all Ben managed to say, although he said it with absolutely no feeling on the matter, like there was no shame on his part whatsoever.

“It’s been quite a long day for you, I imagine,” he said. “With the security breach at Falcon House, and the vote…”

How did he know about the breach at Falcon House?

“All of that aside,” Snoke continued, and Ben was sure he was being leered at right now. “I would like to know where your loyalties lie.”

“The result of the vote is due in a few hours,” Ben said. “Can this not wait?”

The words ‘my lord’ were at the edge of his tongue, but Ben was of equal rank to Snoke now, no need to pretend otherwise.

“Indulge me,” Snoke said lightly. “I’m sure Bazine has given more than enough reason for you to tell me how you voted. And if you voted correctly, then there is nothing to fear.”

So he was dead either way. Damn.

“So now you see the problem,” Ben said, wondering where he was pulling this brazen confidence from. “Because I voted Resistance.”

Almost as if on cue, the clock struck. The herald from the House would likely arrive at any moment to pronounce the Resistance as the majority party, and Prime Minister Holdo still in her position. Ben was supposedly the deciding vote, after all.

“You,” Snoke seethed, his breaths coming out in deep gasps that made his nostrils flare. “You…”

“I could not, in good conscience, vote against my uncle’s wishes,” Ben explained.

“You will regret this,” Snoke said, pointing a gnarled finger at Ben like he was trying to curse him. “You will _regret_ this.”

“We shall see,” Ben said. “Now if you will excuse me, Lord Snoke, Lady Bazine.”

He gave them a polite bow, turned his heel and walked away, feeling himself get lighter with each step. He needed to find Rey. He needed to tell her what had happened, and…

Where _was_ Rey?

“Not to cause any alarm,” Phasma said, coming up to Ben with a hand on his shoulder to assure him that whatever she was about to say was of great urgency. “But Hux just saw Lord Snoke signal his daughter, and in the five minutes it took you to walk away from them, I haven’t seen Rey since she stepped out to the balcony alone.”

“Christ!” Ben exclaimed, politeness be damned as he bolted from Phasma’s grasp, literally pushing people out of the way as he made his way across the massive ballroom to the balcony.

“Rey!”

It was empty. Maybe Phasma wasn’t there, maybe she had lied, and Snoke hadn’t really done anything…

He found his mother’s emeralds on the floor. Ben picked it up, a feeling of dread pooling down his spine and settling into his stomach.

* * *

Rey hadn’t wanted to see whatever it was Bazine and Snoke had up their sleeves for Ben. It wouldn’t matter anyway, would it? She was leaving soon. And Ben had made it clear that he wasn’t interested in Rey knowing anything about his political life.

_He’s not leaving you,_ she told herself. _You’re leaving him. You agreed to this. You chose this, you ninny._

And yet.

She smiled politely at the Ticos and actually headed to the lemonade stand, needing a drink to cool her head. The weight of the emeralds on her neck was no joke. She would have preferred a much stronger libation, but she was an unmarried woman, and unmarried women did not drink anything more than lemonade at a ball.

_Air_, she thought as she downed the cup. _I need air._

Her journey from the refreshments table to the balcony seemed to last forever. Nobles of different names and ranks seemed keen to openly gawk at her, or to pointedly ignore her when she was being asked to be let through. She was all too aware (and honestly, a bit glad) of the rule that one was not to speak to strangers unless properly introduced, and Rey was not of the rank to introduce herself to other people.

God, Rey was tired of all of this.

She managed to make it to the ballroom just as the clock struck midnight, the bells from the house clocks creating a faint melody in the distance.

That was when she felt a hand grab her arm, spinning her around so she looked right into the source of a nightmare.

“You,” Rey seethed. “What are you doing here?”

“I should ask you the same question, Simms,” Unkar’s voice hadn’t changed. Still slimy and loud, and still dripping with disdain for anyone that wasn’t him. “I would never imagine you, little scavenger, to be here at a ball like this, and with such fine jewels as that.”

His gaze landed hungrily on the emeralds on her neck, and Rey’s hand instinctively flew to them to keep them intact. She would never, ever allow Unkar Plutt to pry Leia’s emeralds from her body, not even if she was dead and cold on the ground. She couldn’t even imagine the cost of the jewels of she lost them. Leia had lent them to her tonight out of affection, and there was no way Rey was going to throw that in her face by willingly giving it to Plutt.

“I am not giving you these jewels,” Rey practically snarled, taking a step back. As every instinct in her head screamed at her to run, to leave, fear had kept her rooted to the spot. Instincts that she thought she left behind cam roaring back to life. If she took her eyes off of him, he could lunge at her. It was better to make sure they had some distance. “What do you want.”

“Mm. Still a dirty junk rat underneath,” He said point blank, cocking a pistol had had been in his pocket and pointing it at Rey’s head. “I am to collect the bounty Snoke placed on your head. I do not pretend to understand what a nobleman would want from the likes of you, but the pay is more than enough to cover your debt, and more.”

“I paid my debt to you in _full_,” Rey emphasized, unable to believe that even after all that time and all that hard work, Unkar Plutt was still after her. Still had such power over her, even after she had done everything to brush him off.

“Interest, Simms. Interest,” Plut tutted, his jowls shaking as he shook his head. “Deceptive bastard, that six percent.”

“Six!” She choked. She would never be able to pay that, not even with the thousand Ben was giving her—and she wasn’t even planning on taking that anymore. “I can’t—“

“So shut up and come with me,” Unkar growled.

“Rey!” She instantly recognized Ben’s voice, the desperation and agony in his tone as he peeked out to the balcony. He’d looked for her, he didn’t just leave her behind! Rey’s heart soared, and in her happiness, she made the crucial mistake of turning around. Plutt hauled her by the waist, dislodging the jewels from her neck as he dragged her to the shadows. Rey screamed, trying to reach for Leia’s necklace, because she couldn’t lose that, she could never go back to her if she lost that.

Plutt pressed the pistol to her temple, hauling her backward. She struggled in his grasp, smashing the heel of her shoes on his boot. Plutt jerked, letting her go, and Rey _ran_, and Ben finally turned to see her, his eyes wide in surprise at her distress. Their gazes met for only a second, and she saw the moment his gaze shifted to something behind her. But it was too late, she heard the cock of the pistol.

A shot rang out in the night, and Rey’s entire body froze, her ears ringing. She kept expecting pain to blossom from somewhere in her body, but she only felt cold and numb. But there was no blood. Where was the blood?

“Christ, Rey, are you alright?” Ben’s panicked voice barely registered as he grabbed her shoulders, shaking her slightly. Rey wasn’t bleeding, she wasn’t dying, Ben was here, he was fine. “Did he shoot you?”

“No,” she managed to whisper. Why was Ben shaking? Or was that her? She didn’t know.

Ben’s glare spelled nothing but murder at the intruder with the smoking gun. The entire ballroom had been thrown into a panic, nobles inside scrambling to leave.

“Not one move, Simms,” Plutt said. “I could easily shoot you from here.”

“What the devil do you want from her?” Ben spat.

“What everyone else wants, my lord,” Plutt says. “Money for me, revenge for my employer.”

“And who is your employer?”

“The name slips my mind,” Plutt feigned forgetfulness, but kept his pistol pointed. “Perhaps with a little—“

“I will pay you two thousand pounds to tell me exactly who employed you,” Ben said without thinking.

“Ben!” Rey exclaimed, “you cannot do that—“

“What is my guarantee then, my lord?”

“I am a gentleman, and am worth my word,” Rey struggled in Ben’s grasp to just get him to _stop talking_, but he held her firmly, held her warmly, like he had no plans of letting her go again. “But if that is not enough inducement, I have one thousand pounds in my pocket now.”

“Ben,” Rey intoned. “Why are you carrying around a thousand pounds?”

He shrugged, and with that motion, Rey could see how much of struggle it was for him to maintain a cool veneer of composure. His grip on her was still fierce. “Now who is your employer?”

“Lord Snoke hired me to kidnap your fair maiden and make your loyalties stay with the First Order,” Plutt said, his grin impossibly wider now at the prospect of being paid more. “I tried to draw her out from the Manor, but couple in the garden saw me.”

Couple?

“After I told his daughter everything about you, of course, Simms.”

“And how much will it take for you to leave?” Ben asked, pulling Rey closer.

“Care to make the opening bid, my lord?”

Ben inhaled sharply. Oh how he hated this. Rey could feel his grasp tense, his jaw set in a line so hard he could have cracked stone. The storm that had sent a patisserie shop proprietor shaking in his boots was useless when Ben was the one bargaining for his and Rey’s life, and all Rey could think was, _I am not worth this. Save yourself._

Ben reached into his pocket and held up Leia’s rubies. The gems caught what little light there was, and Rey’s heart sank.

“Ben, you cannot—“

“Your gun for the jewels,” Ben said.

“Deal,” Plutt said, and the exchange was made. Seconds later, Ben was now holding the pistol to Unkar. He didn’t seem to realize that Ben had the higher ground now, much too preoccupied by the jewels.

“You have what you want. Now leave before my patience runs out,” he barked. “And if I ever see you again, I’ll make sure to end you with a bullet.”

Rey opened her mouth to protest, but it was too late. Unkar Plutt was paid, and hw turned and ran with Lady Leia’s jewelry. She whirled at Ben to admonish him, only to realize that he was still glaring at the dark, as if he would stand guard there forever to make sure Plutt didn’t come back. He was as stiff as Rey had been, and placing a hand over his chest told her what she needed to know—he’d been scared.

“Let’s go,” he said, gripping Rey’s arm. “We should never have come to Snoke’s.”

“You didn’t know,” Rey shook her head.

“I voted Resistance. I should have known,” Ben shook his head, leading her out to the courtyard, signaling to their coachman that they had to leave. “My apartments. Now.”

“Your apartments? Ben—“

“I cannot bear to let you leave my sight, sweetheart, not tonight,” he said once the carriage started moving.

It was just as well. Rey could never go back to Falcon House, not after she’d lost Leia’s gems.

They arrived in Ben’s apartments, where he spoke to his valet, Mitaka, to produce tea and something for them to eat. They were presented with tea and blancmange. “Your usual, sir.”

Rey blinked at the confection, looking at Ben, who was already halfway through his.

“Mos Eisley Patisserie trying to get my favor again,” he mumbled. How odd, it tasted exactly like the cook’s from Falcon House.

“Are you sure you’re alright?” Rey asked, reaching for Ben’s hand.

“I am supposed to ask you that question,” he said wryly. “That was Unkar Plutt.”

“Indeed,” Rey said, frowning.

“The same man you were running from when you met me.”

“My debt to him was paid,” Rey insisted, shaking her head. Ben reached for her, and she found himsef faling into his lap, his arms surrouding her with love and warmth. It made Rey feel safe, for the first time that entire evening. “Whatever that slave trader paid him for me, I paid for myself, every crown to the hapenny. That he came here, insisting on interest we never agreed on—“

“It’s done, Rey. You need not ever see that bastard ever again,” Ben assured her, kissing her temple.

_But now I am indebted to you, in ways I can never pay back,_ she thought darkly, leaning into his kisses, because it felt so good to have someone so close. Rey would miss this. She would miss him, and it tore her heart to pieces.

Mitaka burst into the room, and Rey jumped up from Ben’s lap. He did not look even the least concerned, perhaps a little annoyed.

“Apologies my lord, Master Finn and Poe are here—“

“Rey, are you alright?” Finn gasped, entering the room and making a beeline for Rey, who hugged her friend.

“We heard about the gunshot at Snoke’s place, and when the carriage didn’t come back, we had to make sure,” Poe explained. “Is it true you fought off your attacker?”

“No, I—“

“She did,” Ben said, still not rising from the seat. “I saw her.”

“I did not. You—“

“Were of absolutely no use to you,” Ben said before he turned to the two. “I appreciate your care for Rey, but next time, please do not barge in to my room.”

“Rey, come on, let’s go back to Falcon House,” Finn said, holding a hand out foe her, and she shook her head. She couldn’t go back.

“I’m staying here,” he said. “Please convey my gratitude to the Marquess and Marchioness.”

The two men exchanged looks, but didn’t argue.

“Why are you lying to them?” Rey asked, pointing to the closed door. “You saved me.”

“I would rather not change their minds, when they were already made,” Ben reasoned. “It hardly makes a difference.”

“It’s a lie!” Rey insisted.

“It doesn’t matter,” he countered, his brows furrowed like he was genuinely confused as to why they were talking about this.

“It does! Ben, you’re…you’re wonderful,” Rey said, kneeling in front of him, her hands on his knee. He looked down at her with equal parts curiosity and disbelief. “Why am I the only one who gets to see this side of you? The one that’s funny and charming, the one that asks me permission before he touches me? The one that loves me.”

“They don’t want to know that side of me,” he looked at her darkly, cupping her cheek with his hand. “And I don’t deserve their forgiveness.”

“And I can never go back to your mother.”

“Why?”

Rey looked down, idly caressing the fine fabric of his pant leg. “The necklace…”

“Doesn’t matter,” he said.

“It does! It was probably worth ten thousand pounds, I could never repay her—“

Ben pulled back, looking at her, stunned.

“Why should you pay her?” He asked. “If Plutt didn’t take it, he would have taken _you_.”

“I am not worh that.”

His face grew thunderous, and he finally emerged from the seat to take Rey’s face in his hands, to look deeply i to her eyes, as if trying to burn his words into her memory by sheer force of will.

“You,” he said with surprising gentleness. “Are worth more than anything I could ever touch, anything that I could ever hold. I would give away everything if it meant your life. And you deserve to know that you are worth everything, Rey.”

“Because I love you?” Rey whispered.

“Because you’re wonderful,” Ben’s lips quirked in the tiniest of smiles as he brushed his thumbs over her cheeks. “And I love you.”

“But how? I’m just a maid in a tea shop,” Rey’s voice shook with emotion, unable to believe or accept that the love she’d craved her entire life, the love she wanted was right here, in her arms right now. “I’m nobody. Nothing.”

Ben swallowed, and shook his head.

“But not to me.”

Rey surged up to capture his lips in a kiss, unable to stand another moment without being in his arms. She needed him, needed him now. Needed him like there wasn’t going to be an end to all of this.

She slid on to his lap, letting him brush his hands up and down her thighs as she and Ben exchanged happy kisses and smiles. Their other encounters had been speed and urgency, and to ight, for the first time, she felt like they had all the time in the world. Rey moved so her knees were between his hips, her skirts hiked up enough that she could maneuver against Ben’s body. For his part, he held her close, making Rey’s head feel light and dizzy with kisses.

“May I make love to you?” Ben asked, his hand already on her thigh, rising up to stroke her bum and making Rey’s hips press against his growing erection. “Please, sweetheart.”

“Yes,” Rey exhaled as his mouth left marks on her skin, as his free hand scooped past her neckline to fondle her breast. “But perhaps we should take the dress off first.”

She felt Ben’s smile pressed against her skin, and in no time at all, without even moving her from her position on his lap, he bad divested her of her dress and corset, eliciting a gasp of relief from Rey, leaving her in just her chemise, and nothing else. She, in turn, had take off his jacket, loosened his cravat and pulled his shirt from the waist of his trousers.

He was fully hard now, and Rey reached out to lightly stroke him, and the sound en made in response was so deep and obscene that it made wetness rush between her legs. She attempted to squeeze her thighs in anticipation, but couldn’t.

“Ben,” she said. “I need…”

“Of course, sweetheart,” he said, tracing a hand up her thigh again as if he needed it to find the place where Rey ached for him the most, only then just lightly brushing the spot between her legs.

“Ben,” she said, her voice low and threatening as he barely touched her.

“Rey,” he challenged her, gripping her thighs before he stood up, carrying her with him as he walked to his bedroom, kissing her all the while. He lay Rey on the bed and stood there, and she looked up at him idly stroking himself as he looked at her.

“Show me how you would like to be touched,” he leaned forward, one hand by her waist as he stole a kiss or two. “Lead yourself to pleasure.”

Rey was so wer and needy that she complied. It felt odd and achingly intimate, Ben watching her as she touched herself, it almost felt like she was putting on a show that was just for him. _This is how I want it,_ she was almost telling him, _this is how I want you._

She could feel herself on the verge of crisis already, her cheeks heating and her chest tightening, with nothing to anchor her but Ben’s hand on her wait, his mouth sucking at her breasts theough the silk of the chemise. She gripped his arm when her crisis hit, curling her body against her hand as she found release.

But still, she wanted more.

Ben released her breast with a wet pop, sending a shiver up Rey’s spine. She reached up and kissed him, her left hand tugging lightly at his dark locks as her right stroked his hardness, coating it with the liquid that had started leaking from the tip. Then she guided him inside her, and he filled her much better than her own fingers ever could. Ben and Rey crashed against each other like the waves of the cove against the sand, creating a harmony and rhythm that was perfect. Ben couldn’t hold her close enough, it seemed, varying his strokes from deep to long, luxuriating in their task.

“Nobody will every make love to you as well as I can,” he said. “You take me so well, sweetheart, it feels so good.”

Rey gasped as she hooked her leg over his back, using that as an anchor to change their angel slightly so he filled her better. He was gripping the sheets next to her head, the hand he’d looped around her back pulling in deeper, tighter.

_Be with me,_ she wanted to tell him. _Be with me._

Rey couldn’t stop her crisis if she tried. It whipped through her, and she was screaming, squeezing Ben until there was nothing more for him to give. His crisis had hit as well and he cursed all of hell and damnation as his seed spilled inside Rey, creating an even bigger mess than what they were already making.

His body shook and he collapsed beside Rey’s his face just nuzzling her breast as her breath blew over his head. He wrapped his arms around her, his eyes already fluttering closed.

“Be with me,” she thought she heard him say. But she wasn’t sure, as she had surrendered to the haze of sleep as well.

* * *

Ben woke up with Rey in his arms. They had shifted positions in the night, and she had ended up draped on top of him, with his arms draped loosely over her lower back to keep her close. She smelled sweet and feminine, her soft skin glowing slightly in the warm sunlight.

Ben brused his fingers over the back of her hand, which was currently on his chest. How was he expected to let her go tomorrow?

Slowly, Rey woke up, giving hima bleary smile as she kissed the skin on his chest. He placed a hand over hers, him listening to her breath as she listened to his heart, beating only for her.

Gently, he shifted positions so she was underneath him, blinking bleary eyes at him as she looped her arms through the pillow.

“Good morning,” he murmured, kissing the skin on her neck, following the pattern of love marks he had left on her the night before.

“Mmm, good morning,” she said softly, raking her fingers through his hair as he moved lower, hiking up the skirts of her chemise to reveal her completely to him. He took a moment to look at her, tor truly look at her and feel like his heart was about to burst.

“Please,” Rey answered the unspoken question in his mind. Ben coaxed her thighs open, telling him how wet Rey already was for him. It was hard to ignore his own erection when he saw her like this.

He used his hands to coax one leg over his shoulder, and he gave the little pearl on the top of her cunny an experimental suck. Rey’s back arched off the bed, and that was how he knew he was on the right track. He took his time licking and sucking her, enjoying the sounds she made, the way her hips canted and her thighs quaked. She kept trying to squirm away from him, but when Ben stopped, she whimpered, and so he resumed his task. Let it never be said that the Duke Skywalker was a selfish lover. Rey was successfully brought to crisis two more times before he hastily rubbed himself until he had to grab the nearest cloth to catch the seed he had spilled. The nearest cloth happened to be hi shirt, and Mitaka was not going to be happy about that.

When he was done and had sufficiently cleaned himself, Ben rejoined Rey on the bed, her eyes fluttering closed again as she wrapped her arms around him. They couldn’t get enough of each other, it seemed.

But soon, it was time to wake, time to dress and time to leave. The day had to go on, and there was nothing he could do about it.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note the updated chapter count! Apparently I had it wrong in my record, sorry! But yes, this is the penultimate chapter of this little story. :) I hope you guys have enjoyed it so far.

Rey was an early riser. Longer day hours meant more time to work, more time to earn your keep and more time to do things with your time. Rey didn’t know where she learned this notion, but she had a feeling that the more time she spent working during waking hours now, the more time she would have to rest later on. It had baffled her that nobility seemed to think this rule laughable—she’d never had morning meals with the Organa-Solos as they were never awake before noon. Ben certainly didn’t think to grace his family with his presence until well into the afternoon, sometimes even later than that.

Today, Rey woke up and she had the instinct that it was already noon. The sun was warm through the windows, and she felt overheated and hot under the many covers. But as she turned and tried to slip away, she found herself caught in the arms of Lord Benjamin Solo, Duke of Tattooine again as he pulled her back, and pulled her close.

“Not yet,” he mumbled. His hair was mussed from sleep, his lips more pronounced from the heat. Rey giggled and brushed a hand over his face, attempting to smooth down the hair on his face. Ben turned toward her hand, like a flower opening up to the sun.

“Your parents have to be worried about you,” she pointed out to him.

“I wager they’re more worried about you,” he told her, opening one eye. “After all, you were the one who fought off Plutt by yourself.”

“I wish you wouldn’t lie to them anymore,” Rey sighed, but there was no bite to her comment.

“I wish you would stay in bed with me a little longer,” he said, but soon enough, even he woke up.

It was Rey’s last full day in Coruscant, after all.

* * *

By the time Ben’s carriage arrived at Falcon House, Finn immediately ran out to greet them, talking as fast as a hare as he helped Rey out of the carriage. He told her about everyone evacuating from Falcon House, how the gunshot had thrown everything into a complete panic, and how it had become a huge disaster for the First Order.

“And then of course you didn’t come home, and Han and Leia are worried sick,” Finn continued talking as if the Lord of the house wasn’t walking right behind them at a slow and steady pace, with seemingly no interest in the subject at hand. “They just sent Chewie and Poe out, I should get them.”

“Oh goodness, I didn’t mean to make such a fuss,” Rey gasped. “I should go with you.”

“No, no, head on inside, Han and Leia will be relieved to see you,” Finn nodded at the door before he turned and saw Ben, gulping quickly before giving him a bow, like he and Rey hadn’t arrived in his carriage. “Sorry, my lord. Didn’t see you there.”

“You might want to check with the servants at Lord Snoke’s,” Ben told him. “I believe that our mystery security breach was the same brigand Lady Rey apprehended last night.”

“Lady Rey _apprehended_…?”

“Oh, Master Ben, Lady Rey!” Threepio nearly shouted (as much as a by-the-book butler as him could shout) as he opened the door for them. It was loud enough for the entire house to hear, and they were both ushered inside before Rey could correct Finn on his assumption about what had happened the night before. “We were all so worried about you! We sent Artoo to Exegol Hall, but he said you were nowhere to be found, and we thought the worst!”

He continued speaking as he led them to the dining room, and Rey cast a glance over at Ben, still walking one step behind her. He was…he was looking at the furniture like it was the first time he had stepped into his childhood home, blissfully ignoring Threepio's worry over him. She raised an eyebrow at him, and he ignored her. But there was the tiniest hint of a smile on his face. The man found all of this funny. Brilliant.

“Thankfully, Mitaka managed to send a missive just now that you and Lady Rey were safe and sound, and we managed to inform Lord and Lady Solo just after they heard the news of the ruckus. Such a terrible business, that—“

“Ben! Rey!” Leia’s voice exclaimed from her place at the dining table, and the woman who was supposed to have a sprain and still be in bed practically leaped across the room and threw her arms around the two of them. Rey didn’t even know that Leia’s arms were long enough to wrap around her son, much less the both of them. The gesture was so simple, but it was so full of love that it brought Rey to her knees, and _god._ Tears actually sprung to her eyes. She quickly brushed them away before Leia noticed, but Ben was already looking at her, rubbing the back of her hand with his thumb as if to ask if she was alright.

The worry and love that they had for both Ben and Rey overwhelmed her. 

“Oh good,” Ben said sarcastically to his mother. “You heard that Hue Tico won the vote as well. Congratulations are in order for the Resistance.”

“That’s not why I’m happy to see the two of you, and you know that,” Leia chided her son and led them to the dining table, asking a maid to prepare a plate for them. “Nobody’s even talked about the vote yet, they were all so shaken by what happened at Exegol. We were so worried, for the both of you.”

“An intruder with a pistol is likely to do that,” Han said from his place at the table, clapping a hand over his son’s shoulder.

The staff of the house were well versed in both Ben and Rey’s tastes, and predictably, handed Rey two plates of every food available, while Ben was handed a strictly measured portion. Realizing that she was famished, Rey took the nearest roll, smothered it in butter, dabbed a little salt over the concoction and took a generous bite. She was about to grab her second roll when Poe and Finn stormed back into the house.

“Rey, you’re alright!” Poe exclaimed. “The staff at Exegol couldn’t tell us anything that happened at that balcony.”

“Yes, I’m fine,” Rey said, a little more tersely than she intended, buttering her roll a little harder than she should, because she was embarrassed at drawing this much attention to herself, ashamed that people had to go through so much trouble for her.

“What exactly happened last night?” Leia asked, watching Rey with those eagle eyes of hers, and Rey was suddenly very aware that she _wasn’t_ wearing the rubies anymore.

“They said the intruder shot you, but you managed to fight him off,” Poe said, his brow rising as he visually checked her for bullet holes or bleeding wounds, seemingly unimpressed, but relieved, when he found none.

“No, I heard she punched him in the nose by her own hand when she apprehended him!” Finn interjected.

“I think the most important thing is that both Rey and Ben are alright,” Han said, and the rest of the room turned to the Duke, who was busy with his meal, looking up in confusion as the rest of the room stared at him like they had completely forgotten that he had been there as well.

It was the best time as any to inform everyone of the true events of that evening. Rey cleared her throat to get everyone’s attention.

“Actually,” she announced, channeling every ladylike fashion she had picked up from Leia in the week. “The Duke—“

“Was of utterly no use in front of a bandit,” he interjected, with such nonchalance it almost didn’t suit his brooding nature. He frowned at Rey, as if to ask ‘what on earth are you doing?’ "By the time I reached her, she had everything well in hand herself. A true duchess.”

She knew he meant it as some sort of joke, but the words sent and odd thrill through Rey. Not because of the title he gave her, but the sense of belonging. Belonging with him. Love shot through Rey, and she captured it in her heart, squeezing it tightly. He gave her a little smile, like he knew it too.

“By the way, mother,” Ben continued, his gaze still on Rey. She caught the little flash of hunger there, and he had just had as much food as she did. “Your rubies.”

"Yes, I notice Rey's neck is bare."

"The clasp broke as we evacuated Exegol. I had Mitaka take them to the jeweller's for repair. They'll be good as new."

And the only reason why they'll be good as new, was because they would be new, Rey thought darkly, as her frustration rose. There was so much love in this house, within this family, but there were so many lies as well. It angered her that Poe and Finn, and everyone in this house had believed that Rey protected herself just as readily as they believed that Ben had done nothing to help her_._ It was easier for all of them to believe that he had done nothing except to have Leia’s jewels repaired! Why did he insist on being painted with such a dark brush? What was wrong with telling the truth?

The house seemed to resume its usual activity, Finn and Poe confirming that the brigand at Exegol was in fact, the same man they had seen at the house, at least as far as their estimations could tell. Leia was watching her son closely, so close to the truth but Rey didn’t think she would reach the right conclusions. They all deserved to know. He deserved all the admiration and praise, because he was such a good man. A good man that didn’t want credit for the kindness he had shown her.

“That’s enough,“ she said with all the ladylike seriousness she could muster. “It’s time we all started telling the truth.”

“The truth?” Ben asked, his eyebrow rising again, and Rey wished she had all the time in the world to be able to learn the language of the face of the man she loved, but this would have to be enough.

“That’s right,” she said. “We should _all_ start telling the truth, don’t you think? Threepio, could you call everyone into the room?”

“Everyone?” Threepio echoed, turning to Han, who turned to Leia, who turned to Ben, who nodded. Soon, every member of the staff of Falcon House was in the room, and all of them watched Rey.

“This room is now a safe space to tell us anything you want. Anything at all,” she said, feeling strong as she looked at all of the people inside. “You love each other so much, it’s not worth lying to each other! I have never seen anyone try so hard to not hurt someone else, as you all have. But love requires you to trust that the other person has your best interests at heart. Love means telling the truth. Don't you owe that to each other?”

“Ah, so there _are_ secrets,” Leia said, like she’d known all along. She turned to her family, with no malice, not hate, just amusement and endless patience. “Who wants to start?”

“Well—“ Rey said, almost expecting Ben to jump in, but he didn’t seem to have any inclination to.

The cook spoke first.

“I send blancmanges to Master Ben’s house every evening!” he cried, his face filling with tears as the guilt wracked him. “He’s loved them since he was a boy, and when he moved out, I thought he would be homesick, so I took to sending one to Mitaka. Then I never stopped, and I’ve never told anyone, not even when Mistress Leia asked!”

Ben tilt his head in the direction of the cook, as if he was mildly amused that the cook, of all people, would say _that. _Well, it certainly explained why Rey enjoyed the blancmange at his apartments the night before. 

“I slip the dogs extra jerky even when I shouldn’t,” Chewbacca announced, his usual frown deepening as he crossed his arms over his chest like there was no room to argue with him about this. The crossbow he always carried with him certainly added to the effect. “I know they have all been getting a little more portly for sport, but they just love the stuff, I can’t refuse them.”

“I also slip Master Han a meat pie and a mug of beer every afternoon!” The cook added, crying even louder.

“Han!” Leia exclaimed. 

“Oh Tuggs,” Han groaned toward the cook, covering his face.

“Poe and I are in love!” Finn announced, making every head in the house shoot to the two boys, now holding hands. Poe had a bit of blush in his cheeks, although he looked more thoroughly embarrassed at the revelation than proud. 

“Noooo!” a voice cried from among the maids, and someone actually burst into tears before collapsing on the floor. Whether it was over the loss of the dashing Poe Dameron or the sweet and loyal Finn was unclear, but it was enough to cause concern.

“The reason why we saw Plutt that night wasn’t because we were patrolling, we were actually meeting to…do things. But anyway, we’re together!”

Almost everyone in the house started speaking, yelling or crying at the same time, and chaos fully descended into Falcon House. People shouting at each other as more truths came to light, Leia’s head swerving from one person to the other, her eyes getting wider and wider the more things were revealed.

And through all of that, Benjamin Organa Solo, the Duke of Tattoine, remained silent and amused, his eyes drifting toward Rey like he’d planned this all along. The dirty bastard. If Rey didn’t love him so much she would punch him across the face.

“Oh my! I didn’t realize there was a ruckus, but the Lady Rose could not be—“ Threepio exclaimed, nearly making a double take as he reentered the room, but Lady Rose Tico was not to be deterred as she stormed in, spotted Ben and pointed an accusing finger at him.

“You villain!” She exclaimed, shaking her head. “You left Rey to her own devices at the ball last night, and she got hurt! Now the Snokes are clearly out for her blood, and you sit there doing nothing!”

“Lady Rose! I’m fine, please don’t trouble yourself,” Rey exclaimed, trying to go to her friend to reassure her, but it was too late. Rose assessed the situation in the room, noticed Ben’s confused but very passive posture and gasped.

“Does your depravity know no bounds, Lord Skywalker? You make your staff so upset they are in tears!” Rose gasped, shaking her head in disbelief as she placed a hand on her chest, clearly scandalized at the sight. Rey was about to open her mouth and assure Rose that it wasn’t the case when the doorbell rang. Threepio was about to go to answer, but the maid that had been in love with Finn had latched on to him like a limpet.

“As the villain in this story, clearly I must be the sort of Duke who answers his own door,” Ben said in a tone that sounded just like his mother, standing up and walking toward the door. “What could possibly go wrong?”

Rey followed him to the hallway, where he turned to her and brushed his hand against hers. He didn’t seem at all angry at the accusations Rose had lobbied at him, or about the chaos Rey had caused in his house. He looked like he thought this was all utterly hilarious.

“You’re not upset with me,” Rey pointed out, surprised.

“I had a feeling having you in my life would be a little chaotic,” he pointed out as they reached the door. “I underestimated just how much.”

“Ben! What on earth are you doing, answering your own door, man?” Rey heard Hux’s imperious voice before she saw the finely dressed redhead, and this was the kind of thing she did not need at the moment. She fought back the urge to “I’ve heard Flacon House isn’t always the most proper when it comes to protocol, but goodness—“

“Oh nevermind why! We need to talk to you about a very urgent matter,” Lady Phasma’s voice naturally followed. Rey noticed that Hux was now looking in her direction, his eyes narrowed like he'd just seen her doing something she shouldn't have. Rey didn’t know if it was because that was how his face was naturally, that he knew that she was of lower rank than him, or if it was because of something else. Very hard to tell with him.

“By all means. Enter,” Ben said drolly, stepping aside to let them in. “Would you prefer the dining room where I am currently being harangued for being a liar, a villain and blancmange eater, or will the drawing room suit?”

“What kind of nonsense—“

“The drawing room should be fine. You have alcohol, I trust?” Lady Phasma asked, looping her arm around her lover’s and dragging him in the direction of the drawing room, just as Rey heard someone yelling “THERE IS NO NEED TO TELL THE MASTERS ABOUT THE BLUE MILK!” from the dining room.

“No, no! We cannot discuss this in the drawing room as if this was a civil matter!” Hux exclaimed, untangling himself from Phasma, and Rey was convinced that the only reason why he suddenly decided to up the drama factor was because of the yelling in the dining room. “The First Order is in shambles. Hue Tico was elected leader of the government, people started to defect from the First Order to the Resistance to gain favor for their territories. It doesn’t help that there was the security breach at Exegol Hall, and nobody trusts the Snokes any longer. They're calling a vote of no confidence in him so the party can rebuild their defenses.”

“I am aware of all of that, as we were both there,” Ben said, clearly referring to himself and Rey, who said nothing and kept her eye on Hux. She had a bad feeling about this.

“Nevertheless. The Snokes are still very much unhappy. Lady Netal has started to spread a rumor about your mother’s companion,” Hux continued, making sure to spare Rey a glare. “That she is actually a scullery maid from Bespin—“

Rey’s heart sank.

“—who had to run from her debts from this bold faced loan shark and opportunist named Unkar Plutt—“

No. No. No.

“—who had her under his care because she was a foundling, and definitely not the right sort of woman to become a lady’s companion,” Lord Hux finished his little announcement with a little sneer that oddly suited his face. Rey supposed that he was a completely different person to the people who actually loved him, but at the moment, she was feeling less than charitable for the Viscount.

He turned to Rey like a cat that had finally managed to catch his prey in a trap. “Now, Miss Nobody, do let me know how much I would have to pay for you to bugger off and leave my friend’s life.”

Anger roiled inside Rey, and shot up hot and fierce into her throat. Her hands balled into fists, and it took all of her energy to keep them at her sides. No need to make a particularly horrible situation worse. She was about to tell him where he could shove his offer (because she was leaving tomorrow anyway, and wasn’t this the reason why she and Ben came up with the agreement?) when Lord Hux, the Viscount of Arkanis, flew across the room, landing face first on the floor. Lady Phasma looked at her lover crumped on the ground, then at Ben, who was flexing his hand.

“Good lord, Benjamin. Did you have to hit him that hard?” She shook her head, kneeling to where Lord Hux was, as if she just wanted to make sure that he was still breathing.

“I will not have Rey’s honor maligned,” Ben's voice was dark and low, like further provocation would be the unwise course of action.

“Well someone has to save you from ruin then, because that’s where all of this is headed!” Lord Hux insisted from where he was lying down. “She is not what she says she is, she’s a liar and most likely, a whore!”

It was an insult of the highest order and yet she could seem to find it in her to react. The words didn’t even penetrate Rey, more because she no longer gave two whigs about what society thought of her. She cared more about the family’s reputation than she cared about insults hurled at her from a man who was only trying to protect his friend.

A gleaming silver pistol was pointed at the still prone viscount. The Duke’s entire body had turned stiff, his eyes burning with anger and rage. He cocked the pistol.

“Would you rather I aim between your eyes, or between your legs?”

“For goodness’ sake Ben, do not shoot your friend!” Rey screamed, attempting to pull his arm back, but he was much too determined to back out. Phasma watched the scene with equal parts confusion and amusement. Clearly, she had a feeling that Ben wouldn’t back out of this just as much as Rey was sure he would do it. 

“Not until he apologizes to the lady,” Ben grit out the words, but seemed to regain his bravado and demanded, “Well come on now, Armitage, let’s hear it.”

“I am not apologizing to a foundling and a desert rat! I am the Viscount of Arkanis, and I demand respect from someone so far beneath me she does not even warrant mention!” Lord Hux’s voice shook, his eyes focused on Rey even as he faced the barrel of Ben’s pistol.

“She is the future Lady Skywalker, Duchess of Tattooine, so high above you that it is you who does not warrant mention,” Ben glowered before he turned to Rey, his face completely serious and almost devoid of all emotion.

"You intend to marry the chit?"

“I believe I just asked her. By marrying me, she will erase the sins of her past, and she will be elevated to the rank of duchess.”

“No,” the words escaped her lips before she could properly think, and only then did Ben actually lower his pistol, staring at her in disbelief.

It didn’t make any kind of sense that he would ask to marry her, not when he was only doing it to…to save her reputation. Rey was done needing to be rescued, and Ben needed to face up to the facts. Even if they did marry now, they would be eschewed from society. Nobody would trust a man who married so far beneath him. It would be a horrible existence, one that she knew she would never allow. She would never forgive herself if that happened. 

“No?” Ben echoed as Lord Hux and Lady Phasma’s collective jaws dropped at her. _How dare she turn down an offer of marriage from a Duke!_ she could almost hear them say.

“I will not marry you,” Rey shook her head, taking a step back. “Not to cover up my past or leave it behind. It made me who I am, and you are asking me to forsake all of that and forget who I am.”

“Rey,” Ben’s hand lowered as he turned to her.

“I thought you liked me because of who I am,” Rey said, understanding dawning on her now that she could very easily say everything she wanted to out loud. “That night at the Inn, I thought…I thought it didn’t matter to you. But it does, doesn’t it? It bothers you that I am not from this world, what other people would say now that they’re hearing the truth. And I wouldn’t know if that would be the case, because you never tell anyone how you truly feel.”

“What the hell is going on?” Han asked, storming into the hallway holding an axe over his shoulder while the Marchioness followed behind him. The ruckus in the dining hall had dissipated somewhat, but still a far cry from the relative normalcy of the Falcon House. Bibi the cat walked up to Rey and rubbed itself against her ankles. The cat had gotten much more plump in the week since they arrived, and could frequently be seen napping in front of the fireplace. But that would soon be over. Rey would have to take him along with her when she left. 

“Hux is a bastard. And I am in love with Rey,” Ben continued, his eyes still boring a hole into her, his voice strong and sure, and without the sense of urgency it had earlier. His gaze softened. His lips did that thing she liked when he was struggling with his words, like he wasn’t sure if he should swallow them down or say them out loud. “I intend to marry her, if she would have me.”

She gasped, his words wrapping tenderly around the space in her heart that she had carved for him, filling it and making it glow. Her love for the Duke was too real, too painful and too new that it hurt, it hurt to have to say no to him, it hurt to know that she was leaving tomorrow. Because of course she wanted to stay with him. She wanted to have everything with him, a home, a family, a life together.

But that just wasn’t going to happen.

“Yes, we know all of that,” Leia insisted. “Once again, you children are testing my infinite patience—“ a snort of laughter from the Marquess of Corellia beside her. “Now please, what is going on?”

“The Snokes are trying to ensure that your family’s reputation is in tatters, and if you want to keep Rey as your…er, companion, Lady Leia, Lord Organa-Solo or Skywalker or whatever, must marry her,” Hux announced. "But by marrying her, he can no longer be a member of any respectable society, and he certainly cannot be nominated as the new leader of the First Order."

“That’s twice a Duke’s asked to marry you, Lady Rey,” Phasma pointed out, and Rey wondered if that was respect she was seeing in the dowager Baroness’ eyes.

“Has your answer changed at all?” Lord Hux asked. “Because I am still willing to pay any amount—“

“Shut up, Hux!” At least three other people said, and the Viscount had the good sense to clamp his mouth shut. Lady Rose walked in to the hallway with Finn and Poe in tow, looking curiously at the scene that unfolded before them. Her impression of Ben was certainly not going to be improved by him holding a pistol to Armitage Hux’s face. Plus Han still had that axe over his shoulder.

Ben was still waiting on Rey’s firm answer.

“If you want to marry me,” Rey chose he words carefully, knowing she was about to break his heart. “Just to cover up the truth about my birth, and keep lying to everyone, then I can’t do that. I cannot be that kind of duchess.”

“You would be _my_ duchess.”

“And I would have to live with someone who never spoke his true feelings,” She said, and every word was like stomping a foot on his heart, and she knew it so well. But this was what he’d wanted from her wasn’t it? He wanted her to be able to fight for herself, to speak up when she needed to, and she was doing just that. Yes it hurt. It hurt like the devil. Three devils, dancing on her heart. But it had to be done. “I’m sorry, Ben.”

He lowered the pistol. There was a brief second that Rey thought he would set it on himself, but quickly brushed away that feeling. He was not that kind of man. He would never abandon his duties as a Duke, not when so many people relied on him.

“Very well then,” he said, his voice cold and harsh as the day she first met him. "Let's not delay the inevitable."

Clearly, he was about to say more, when the door to the house swung open again. Standing on the doorstep was a man in a heavy cloak, a hood covering his features. But the moment hood lowered, at least seven voices in the house gasped. Old, but sharp blue eyes met Rey’s and a wry smile was behind a beard.

“So,” said Luke Skywalker, the Duke of Tattooine. “What did I miss?”


	10. Chapter 10

“I’ll have the maid bring tea,” Lady Rose announced, ushering Rey into the finery of Hays Manor, the Tico’s Coruscant residence. It was warm and very well lit inside, nothing of the dark ostentation of Exegol or the controlled chaos of Falcon House. It was sunny, incredibly inviting, and looked like it was lived in. Rey had the immediate feeling that she had walked into a safe place. A home.

She inhaled a shuddering breath, her fingers numb as the butler retrieved her coat and gloves. There had only been enough time for her to change before Rose pulled her away from Falcon House, quite possibly, forever.

“Rey and I will be in the solarium. Please send for tea. And cake. Lots of cake,” Rose told the maid as Rey sidestepped a man struggling under the weight of a large vase of flowers. Come to think of it, the entire house seemed much busier than an average home. Balustrades and floors were being dusted and wiped down, an assortment of fineries being laid out.

“Bollocks,” Rey cursed aloud.

“What was that?” Rose asked innocently, steering her guest in the direction of the solarium, where exotic orchids from Otomok where the Tico’s ancestral seat was. A large pot of fragrant green tea was placed before them, as well as a large selection of the same French pastries Ben had procured from his usual patissier’s rival as revenge for insulting Rey.

She tried to ignore that.

“Ball,” Rey managed to finally say. “I just realized the Resistance is holding a ball in honor of your father tonight. Surely you have many things to attend to, Lady Rose—“

“My mother and sister have everything well at hand,” Rose assured her, smiling.

Rey was a good guest, so she poured a cup of tea for herself and for her hostess, the action reminded her of the Tea Salon back on Bespin. A pang shot through her chest as she wondered how Maz was. Her last missive contained only one question—_has he asked you to marry him yet?_

She ate a madeleine in one bite and swallowed it down with tea. She barely managed to taste it. A bad omen, to be sure.

“In fact, that was what brought me to Falcon House in the first place,” Rose continued, oblivious to Rey’s turmoil. “I was trying to get out of Paige and Mama’s way. I expected to go there, harangue Lord Benjamin for some time and visit you to see if you were faring well. I did not expect to walk in to…well, you know more than I what had happened.”

It had been about an hour since they departed from Falcon House, and still, Rey could not quite explain her feelings. She couldn’t know what her feelings were in the first place. So much had happened, too much so that she was left an image of Ben’s stricken face, when he saw his uncle at the doorway.

Rey’s instinct thad been to reach for his hand, only to realize too late that it was the wrong course of action, as Ben flicked it away as if her touch had burned his skin.

_“I think it is time that you leave, Rey,” He said without looking at her, his voice cold. “Lady Rose, if you would be so kind.”_

Rose had griped and complained about the Duke’s imperious manner the entire ride to Hays Manor, however, she had conceded that the Duke deserved kudos for not kicking Rey out on the street, leaving her in the care of a friend instead. He was certainly well within his rights to simply leave her.

Now that she was sitting in the Tico’s solarium, all Rey knew was heartbreak. She never thought she would experience a feeling as debilitating as this. One of the small comforts she gave herself in her younger years was that, as nobody would ever love her, she would never have to experience the pain and suffering that came from eventual heartbreak. Oh how wrong she had been. She never thought she would fall in love, much less lose it this way.

She had known her time at Falcon House, her time with Ben was going to end, but she had not wanted it to end like this.

_I think it’s time you leave, Rey._

She pushed the memory aside. Really, what had she been expecting? That she would part with the Duke on good terms, that they would remain friends? Lord help her, she was a fool. A damned fool.

Rey started to laugh bitterly. There was not much else she could do in this situation, now when she was meant to fail anyway, meant to go back to Bespin, back to her small life without the man she loved. All of this was supposed to happen, and yet she felt completely rotten over it.

She stuffed another madeleine in her mouth.

“Oh goodness,” Rose gasped, and for a moment, Rey had completely forgotten she was there. Then she reached for Rey’s hand and squeezed it. “You…you really love him.”

Tears filled Rey’s eyes, and she began to sob in earnest. She wasn’t used to this, wasn’t used to having anyone hold her hand, to reassure her that things would be fine. Rey had grown up facing troubles and difficulties on her own. But when Lady Rose held her hand and saw right inside Rey’s heart, the affection broke the dam of her emotions, and allowed her tears to flow in earnest.

It was lovely to have a friend who seemed to understand her, hold her hand even without having to understand why she needed it.

“I do,” Rey admitted. “I love him very much.”

“Even after he treated you so poorly?”

“He didn’t. Oh Lady Rose—“

“Rose,” Rose gently corrected her, giving Rey a chiding smile.

“Rose,” Rey repeated, affection blossoming in her heart. “He has never spoken to me in anger, or given me cause to think him a villain. He loves too deeply, hurts too deeply, but he knows where his heart lies. He wants to seem strong, but he doesn’t realize that strength is not an imperious tone and an angry gaze. It is the way he cares for the people around him. And he cares so much.”

“I’m afraid I don’t understand,” Rose said, her perfectly sculpted brows furrowing. “What exactly happened? Is there any truth to the rumors Lady Bazine is spreading about you?”

So Rey told her. Almost everything. How Ben chose her to become his duchess to spite his mother, hoe he never spoke an unkind word to her, how he defended and fought for her when she didn’t think she was worthy of fighting for herself. She told Rose about Unkar Plutt and the rubies, his unflappable bravery in the face of the villain.

Rey watched Rose’s face grow from confusion to understanding, and finally, surprise.

“I misjudged him terribly,” she gasped, placing a hand on Rey’s lap. “I thought surely he was a villain!”

“Not to me,” Rey wiped away her tears with her sleeve. Most indecorous, but there was very little point to being proper now. “The sad truth of the matter is that I would have accepted his proposal of marriage if it had been made in any other circumstance. I would have loved to become his wife.”

“His wife, and not his duchess,” Rose said, understanding how it was important to make such a distinction.

“Yes.”

Silence filled the solarium. Rey supposed her friend was still mulling over the overwhelming amount of information she had laid at Rose’s feet, and nervously fiddled with the hem of her dress. She mentally calculated her route back to Bespin, a route she had learned the day she arrived. There was a mail coach that could take her as far as Corellia, but the thought of ever passing through any of the myriad of the Organa-Solo or Skywalker estates did not appeal to her. But there was nothing for it, Rey sighed as she bit into a macaron.

“There’s nothing for it, then,” Rose very suddenly said, as if she had been considering a very long, complex problem. “You must attend the ball tonight.”

Rey choked inelegantly on her macaron, the pastry choking her at the sudden announcement. She stared at her hostess in disbelief as Rose pat her back and haded her a fresh cup of tea.

“If the Duke has chosen to be stubborn about his _true_ feelings for you,” Rose continued like nothing was amiss. “Then we are going to have to show him exactly what he is letting go of. You will dazzle him, become the toast of hte town, and make him propose on the spot.”

Rey had heard all of that before, and now the idea appealed to her even less.

“Do it to show him that you do not want him.”

But she did.

“Do it to show him that you don’t need him.”

But she did.

“And do it to show him that you will be fine without him.”

She was going to have to be.

“At the very least, do it to salvage the Organa-Solos reputations,” Rose continued, even as Rey’s face was still pale from the suggestion of attending tonight’s ball. “Lady Bazine’s tongue is sharp, but it will lose its edge if you show up to the ball and own up to the stories. There is no shame in work, and the Organa-Solos have always been supporters of that. Make society see how wonderful Rey from Nowhere truly is.”

Then, for further emphasis, Rose picked up her tea cup and gave it a sip.

“If you do this, I will drive you back to Bespin myself,” she said proudly, as if that were to be the end of the argument. “And you know it will be a true sacrifice, as I will miss you dearly when you leave.”

Now it was Rey’s turn to grip her friend’s hand as they exchanged smiles. They both knew that a decision had been made.

“Rose, this is madness,” Rey couldn’t help but give a fatalistic sort of laugh. “I hardly think I can dazzle in a day dress.”

She’d managed to change out of last nights ruby gown into a practical, blush pink dress she’d brought from Bespin. It was a bit old and mended at certain places, and it was more than serviceable for the daytime. However, it was hardly the kind of dress that would impress anyone at an evening ball, even if it was a ball full of Resistance supporters.

“Did someone say dazzle?” A familiar voice rang through the solarium, making both Rey and Rose jump. At the doorway stood Poe Dameron, grinning like he was the lord of the house, followed by Finn and Paige, who was looking at her sister as if to ask, ‘what on earth is going on?’

“Poe, Finn!” Rey exclaimed, so happy to see them that she nearly followed them down the road of impropriety to leap up and hug them.

“We come bearing gifts,” Poe explained, holding up a myriad of boxes in varying shapes and sizes, leaving them all on Rey’s lap and the chair beside her.

“More and more gifts,” Finn added, holding more boxes. “Enough gifts to attend a ball, I imagine.”

“Ooh!” Paige exclaimed, slipping between Rey and her sister on the couch as the three of them made quick work at opening the packages. There were undergarments made of the finest French lace, the kind that made everyone blush just to see them. Slippers made for dancing in a luscious blue green, and other accoutrements that, as Finn promised, were more than enough to attend a ball.

But there were other things as well—practical day dresses that could be worn in warmer climates, hats for the same weather. Novels bound in the most luxurious red leather that had gold stamping and Rey’s name on the spine. They were things that she knew innately belonged to her, and felt like they were truly _hers._

“Oh,” was all she managed to say, as tears filled her eyes. “Who sent these?”

“A benefactor we are not allowed to name,” Poe said with a grin, like seeing Rey in tears over small possessions was the absolute goal.

“Well, we have no time to waste,” Rose exclaimed, waving around a set of deep red ribbons. “We have a ball to get ready for!”

She and Paige then spent the rest of the time rallying the staff to aid in the three ladies’ preparation. As Poe oversaw the items being listed and gathered together, Finn gently pulled Rey aside to speak to her.

“How is he,” the words were out of her mouth before Finn could say a word. Her voice was shaky, and mostly because she really wanted to know. She missed him so much that it ached.

“I cannot say,” Finn said apologetically. “We were sent here not long after you left. But Poe and I have the rest of your belongings. A carriage is waiting at the stables here as well. We were instructed to convey you to Bespin Cove right after the ball.”

“There’s no need for that, Finn, I can take—“

“The mail coach?” Finn asked with a raised brow, as if to ask Rey if she was serious in her endeavor. “There is no need to risk your safety. Poe and I have longed for a home of our own near the sea, however, we never found an excuse to do so until now. Maz offered that we run the pub side of the Salon as well, and I am really looking forward to it.”

“I couldn’t let you—“

“Yes, you can,” Finn gripped her arms. Again, highly improper, but it made Rey pay attention. “Do not worry about what will happen after the ball. Focus on tonight. Enjoy it. Not for Leia or Han, or for Ben. But…for yourself.”

Rey nodded.

* * *

Ben tried to remember the last time the entire Organa-Solo/Skywalker family was all in the same room together.

He really, really tried. It had to have been more than five years, perhaps even longer. He could no longer remember. Families simply drifted apart, he supposed, but perhaps the drama of their political positions had an effect on that as well.

He remembered his childhood had been full of laughter and happiness. He supposed his family did their best to love him, and he was never wanting. They just…didn’t understand him when he said that he needed space, that he needed to do things his own way. They wanted to mold him into their exact shape, and try as Ben might, he could never be that fit for them.

So he let them paint him as a villain, look at him with exasperation, despair, and in Luke’s case, disappointment. He certainly deserved it, and lived up to that.

Ben took a sip of his drink. They had retreated to the drawing room, and even with all the staff finally calm (and Dormé mysteriously missing), there seemed to be something, or rather someone missing from the room.

He refused to acknowledge that.

What he could not do at the moment was stand up, or speak. He was not about to tell a soul, but he was completely drained of his emotional strength. What little he had was used up, completely consumed by the person he sent away. Even with the glass of brandy in his hand, he felt unstable, as if his world was completely off-axis, never to be righted again.

He kept seeing the look on Rey’s face when she rejected his proposal. He had expected shock, perhaps a tear or two. He had not expected the crushing disappointment on her face. It cut at him, it still did. Perhaps it always would.

He had really, really hoped that she would say yes. But there was nothing for it now.

Ben swallowed the rest of the drink. The fine Corellian whiskey tasted like ash in his mouth.

“So who wants to start,” Han, still very much the head of the family when he needed to be, asked as he nursed his own whiskey glass. “Leia? Ben? Luke?”

_I can’t do this,_ Ben thought, his fragile control on his emotions threatening to break. _I can’t do this._

_But I have to._

“Uncle,” Ben spoke, and suddenly he was a petulant young child again, no patience for whatever it was Dukes or Earls were supposed to do. “I must apologize to you. The vote on the foundling homes…”

“I know, Ben,” Lurke said, wearing every year he had lived on his face. Luke Skywalker, Duke of Tattooine had always been a near mythical being, even to his own nephew. Ben felt like he had had been nothing to his uncle but a constant source of disappointment. But now, as Luke spoke, there was a tiredness to his voice. Perhaps even forgiveness. “I know. I also know how well you’ve run the states in my stead, and how you voted in favor of the Resistance.”

“You did?” Leia gasped in shock, and Ben immediately scowled at the wry look on Luke’s face.

“I thought that information was supposed to be confidential,” he grumbled.

“It is, until Lor San Tekka wanders into the same pub you’re brooding in, and gets a few drinks in him,” Luke mused, rubbing his unkempt bears and grinning at the memory.

“I am still a member of the First Order,” Ben reminded his family. “But Snoke had gone much too far. Some things you must fight for.”

He said that while looking at the remnants of his drink, as his mind drifted to Rey once again. Ben had many, many regrets in his life, and sending Rey away would always be one of them, like a hole in his heart that he would never be able to fill.

But that didn’t mean he would be able to live with his other regrets.

“I must apologize for other things as well,” He continued, his shame preventing him from even looking his family in the face. “Mother, for shutting you out when I knew you were hurting when Uncle Luke left. Father, for always disappointing you…”

“Ben,” Leia’s voice sounded heartbroken.

“I didn’t tell you at the time. But the reason I didn’t want to marry was because I didn’t feel worthy of the Dukedom,” he continued. “I still don’t deserve it.”

A hand clamped down on his shoulder, making Ben jump and nearly spill his drink. He looked up and saw that it was his father, looking down at him with hard, serious eyes. The Marquess was frowning at him. Apparently, struggling with emotions was a family trait.

“You could never, ever disappoint me, son,” Han told him, in a term that brokered no argument. “I have always been proud of you. I may not agree with all of it, but I am proud. Because I love you.”

Ben’s voice caught in his throat, and he could do nothing but place his hand over his father’s and squeeze.

“And I have to apologize,” Luke spoke up, making Ben blink at his uncle in surprise. “I was so sure if I left you to your own devices, you would lead it all to ruin. It was hubris on my part to doubt you, ben. You have done a wonderful job with the estate. I don’t think anyone ever ‘deserves’ a dukedom, but they certainly earn it, like you have.”

“Uncle…” If any part of Ben’s heart wasn’t already shattered by Rey’s rejections, it would have burst at Luke and his father’s words. Perhaps there was something to telling the truth.

“Oh for goodness sake!” Leia suddenly exclaimed, making the men in the room turn to her in surprise as she slammed her cane down in indignation. “Why am I surrounded by imbeciles!”

“I do’t hear you telling your son how you love him,” Han lectured, refilling his and Ben’s glasses.

“Well of course, I love him!” Leia continued with the exact same level of indignation. “Why do you think I pulled this entire scheme in the first place?”

“Boredom?” Luke guessed, after Han had given him a very rough, very shortened version of the events of the last week.

Leia looked like she wanted three more drinks before she continued to deal with the band of idiots that was her family. Ben certainly understood the feeling.

“I wanted you to find love because I want you to be happy,” Leia explained, shaking her head. “You chose her. Out of all those women in the room, you chose her. I had never seen you more sure of anything in your life.”

Because he had been a fool who only wanted to speak to the woman he met at the Inn again.

“Rey was smart enough to reject your haphazard proposals, brave enough to face the ton for your sake, and is the only person who has managed to make you smile in the last year,” his mother’s face was steely as she glared at Ben. “Now tell me, idiot son, joy of my heart. Why in damnation did you let her go?”

He had to admit, he had no answer for that.

* * *

“It’s a bit tight in the waist, miss, but it will do,” Dormé announced, taking a step back from Rey in the Ticos’ guest suite. The lady’s maid on loan had appeared in the room just as Rose and Paige were swept up into their rooms by their own. Rey had never been so happy to see her, and Dormé quickly explained how Poe had arranged for her to come to Hays Manor for Rey’s preparations, and would take a hackney back to Falcon with none the wiser.

Rey never thought she would ever need anyone’s help for anything, much less dress up for a ball. But Dormé understood every piece of inner and outerwear that was given to her, knew that the chemise with the white silk was the one to wear under the dress so it didn’t show, knew how to put on the petticoat of the same dress. She knew how to apply the bit of rouge that had come especially imported, and most importantly, to tame the mess that was Rey’s hair.

“Oh Dormé, this is beautiful,” Rey gasped. The dress was made of a fine material Rey was not familiar with, in a color that she could only describe as a midway between a blue and green. The petticoat ensured that the skirt flared wonderfully, and it was surprisingly comfortable to wear regardless. What ever the material was, it shimmered slightly when it caught the light, like gossamer butterfly wings had been finely hammered into the fabric. The cut of the dress was low, but not uncomfortably so. Rey had no jewels of note, so Dormé had threaded a crimson red ribbon below her breasts where the dress flared, and threaded another in her hair alongside a few red roses that matched the ribbon exactly.

Rey looked like no lady she had ever seen before. She looked a little wild, like someone who wouldn’t fit in. But still she looked beautiful, and most importantly, she looked like herself.

“Thank you,” she gasped, grasping the ladies maid’s hand. “You didn’t have to sneak out of Falcon House for me.”

“Surely I did,” Dormé disagreed, making some final adjustments now that Rey was moving around. “My Mam’s struggling a bit back home and she needed extra funds. My benefactor offered a tidy sum to come to you for the afternoon. Not a bad day’s work.”

“Your benefactor?” Rey asked curiously.

“Are you ready, dearest?” Poe’s voice was teasing as he knocked on the door and stepped into the room, dressed in a fine burgundy waistcoat and overcoat, a fine white shirt and matching burgundy trousers. When he saw Rey, he stopped and looked at her, studying her from head to toe. Rey smiled and gave him a little spin. “I guess you are ready. Excellent work, Dormé. Finn will help you get a hackney back to Falcon House.”

“Thank you, milord,” Dormé gave Rey a little curtsy before Poe tucked Rey’s arm under his.

“Such subterfuge just to keep this mysterious benefactor a mystery,” Rey teased him. Poe laughed, his curls dancing.

“It’s to your benefit, believe me,” He assured her. “But look at you! Goodness, I’m sure Ben’s isn’t the only heart that will break tonight.”

“You tease, but I’m actually very nervous,” Rey bit her bottom lip as they left the room. “I wish I didn’t have to do this.”

“The course of love never did run smooth,” Poe quoted as they made it to the top of the stairs.

“Oh, you know what I mean,” Rey sighed. “I wanted to have a life together with him. To wake up in the morning with him, or argue over who got too much of the sheets. I wanted to argue with him about his preference for too much sugar in his tea. But all I will have is tonight.”

“I’m sorry it had to be this way,” Poe said, and she greatly appreciated the sympathy in his voice as they reached the top of the stairs. “I’m sorry you have to stay strong while your heart is breaking.”

“I have plenty of time to be sad about it for the rest of my life,” Rey told him. “But not tonight.”

A hush of silence filled the ballroom when Rey and Poe descended the stairs. That was how she knew the stories about her had well and truly spread. But she kept her head high and her gaze imperious, channeling all of the nobles of high birth who had done the same to her when she tried to approach them. _Stiff upper lip, carry on,_ she thought. _You are not here for them._

They made it to the ballroom floor and the stares continued, just in time for Lady Phasma to approach them, dragging Lord Hux behind her. Armitage looked a little worse for wear, wrinkling his forehead as he realized that Phasma was insisting on talking to her. She was wearing a dress made of pure gold, and a crown of tiny hammered gold leaves. It made her look like a fairy, and her companion a grumpy henchman.

“Lady Rey! So glad you could come tonight,” Lady Phasma exclaimed, as Poe went off to procure lemonade. Rey made the firm decision that while she and Lady Phasma would never be the best of friends, they respected each other, and that was more than enough in places like this. “I’ve always thought you had that bit of tenacity to you, and I am thoroughly enjoying it. Plus you look beautiful.”

“I’ve always thought so,” a voice behind her said, and she turned just in time to see Ben standing behind her. His usually stoic and serious face spread into a smile that lit up the entire room. Who knew that he had dimples? “Lady Rey. You are a vision.”

“Ben,” Rey gasped, and he immediately swept her into his arms, and they were dancing like they were the only two people in the room. A waltz played through the ballroom, and Rey fell into step with him so naturally, it was as if they fit perfectly together. A duke and a scullery maid. A son and a foundling. A man and a woman who were very much in love.

“I apologize for sending you away,” he said, as they move across the room together. He smelled tantalizing tonight, like wood sage and other manly things, his hair perfectly coiffed thanks to Mitaka’s efforts, in a waistcoat and jacket of the deepest navy blue. “I didn’t want to involve you further in the Skywalker family dramatics.”

“You have the worst way of communicating with others, my lord,” Rey teased. “But I hope you were able to fix things, the four of you.”

“There is still much for us to discuss,” he brow furrowed for a moment. “But yes. We were able to talk. As for you and me…”

“Yes?” Rey asked.

“I was wrong to ask you to marry me the way I did, for the reasons I was stating,” he told her. “You deserve much more than to be trapped into the life of a duchess. I was wrong to try to suppress you you are, because it was those parts that I selfishly wanted to keep for myself.”

“And as we have established, you are very, very selfish,” Rey smiled.

“I knew you would look lovely in the teal,” he said taking one step back so he could admire her in the gown. Of course he was her mysterious benefactor. The man was too generous for his own good.

“You orchestrated all of that just for me?”

“Not for you. For me. As we’ve established, I am selfish. Tonight’s hostess has been very adamant in her naming me a villain,” he said, looking over to where Rose was dancing with Poe, the both of them making a very poor effort in concealing the fact that they were trying to eavesdrop. “Lady Rose should go into politics. She would be a force to be reckoned with in that arena.”

Rey couldn’t help but laugh. And as she did, she noticed the way that his face changed from a happy, light smile to a more somber one and it almost transformed him into a completely different person. A sense of foreboding filled Rey, in the back of her mind, a voice was telling her, _I knew it wasn’t going to last._

“My lord,” she said, and his attention snapped back to hers. “I realize there are other pressing matters for us to handle. But may we finish the waltz first? I would like to have a moment to look back on. For the rest of my life.”

He said nothing, but nodded and granted her wish. Rey honestly wanted to dance with him for the rest of time.

But all good things must come to and end, as the waltz did.

“Father received a missive from Bespin today from his friend Lando Calrissian,” Ben said, retrieving a letter from the inside pocket of his waistcoat. “It seems Maz has taken ill.”

Ice filled Rey’s insides at the thought. Maz was a woman who seemed like she would outlive them all, and healthier than Rey on most days. She couldn’t imagine her ill.

“She stayed out much too late outside on a particularly cold night and caught a severe chill,” he said, and Rey knew all to well that Maz enjoyed a mug of ale while sitting outside on most nights. Rey would usually catch her and make her come in to the house before it got too cold. She also knew how serious something that sounded as banal as a ‘chill’ could be. “It’s serious enough that Lando sent for Chewie, and I would assume that you would wish to be by her side.”

Rey’s hands turned to ice, even as Ben gripped them. Her head was in a whirl, and all she could do was nod numbly at him. She needed to go back. She’d abandoned the only person in the world who took her in, when nobody else would. She’d done to Maz exactly what her family had done to her.

“Chewie’s already there, and you already know that Finn and Poe are ready to take you there tonight,” he continued. “I am so sorry I cannot come with you. My own situation with Uncle Luke is fraught with complication…”

“I could never ask you to leave,” Rey gasped. “But I do have to go.”

“I know, sweetheart.”

She felt Ben’s arms wrap around her as her knees went weak, and they walked out of the ballroom with his coat wrapped firmly around her. He nodded in a certain direction, and Poe shot off like a rocket, presumably to fetch the carriage with Finn. When they reached the driveway, Ben turned to Rey, wrapping the coat more firmly around her as her cold fingers found a home on his face, on his chest. It felt like he was disappearing before her very eyes, her heart getting torn in two.

“Will I ever see you again?” Rey wondered out loud, as Ben placed a kiss on her forehead. Her heart would never recover from this, she knew. But as she had feared, she and Ben were from different worlds. She no longer doubted if she ever had his love. She would never doubt it again. But right now, they could not be. It was the way their worlds worked.

“One day,” He promised. “We found each other once, we can do it again.”

“I don’t think I can go through this again,” Rey shook her head. “I cannot be a duchess.”

“I know,” Ben stroked her face, and if Rey’s vision was not already blurred from her tears, she would have noticed that tears had sprung on his eyes as well. “I know, my love.”

They kissed one final time as the music swelled from inside the ballroom. Finn and Poe drove up to the front with a carriage. With one last guiding hand, and a final look at his dark eyes, Rey drove away from the love of her life.

And as she rode through the night with her friends, she didn’t think it was at all worth giving up the man she loved until she made it to Maz’ bedside. The old woman, drenched in sweat from a fever that had just broken, turned to her, and pressed a hand to Rey’s cheek. Rey was still wearing her gown, the roses her hair just starting to wilt, and it felt so odd to her to be dressed in such fineries in front of a woman who found her mucking about in the dirt.

Then, with all the affection Rey craved, Maz Kanata smiled.

“Rey,” she said gently. “Welcome home. Has Ben asked you to marry him yet?”

* * *

“We are not,” Poe said months later, shaking his head as he looked up at her. “Getting a tub for every room!”

“Why not?” Rey asked, climbing up one more rung as her last attempt to reach for the sign had failed. “If we are to be the premiere staying place in Bespin Cove, we need to have tubs! It is just as important as pirating the good chef from the Inn over on Scarif, getting the fancy ale from that runner friend of yours, and the larger stables that Finn insisted we need.”

“People can swim in the ocean! I am not purchasing an expensive bath for every room,” Poe insisted, ever the practical businessman.

It was the middle of the day, in that odd time when the ladies who finished their tea were just shuffling back to their homes to read their illicit literature, knit a kettle or some such. Whatever it was that ladies on holiday did.

“Maybe we should not be having a discussion about this while we are attempting to change our shop’s sign,” Finn, always the peacemaker between the two hotheads, said calmly as he held on to the bottom of the ladder.

“Indeed,” Rey grumbled as she seized the two ends of the old shop sign and started to pry it off the hook. “What we should be doing is talking about the tubs.”

As the staff around them cleared the dainty china and fine tablecloths, the three business partners of Maz’ Tea Saloon were conferring regarding their latest venture—converting Maz and Rey’s old house into a set of rooms.

Although Ben had made good on his initial promise to give Rey a thousand pounds when their week was complete, she had not touched those funds. Instead she sold the gown she wore to the ball, the slippers, and a lot of the other things Ben sent with her (except the books, she kept the books and made a lending library out of them, which helped fund a lot of her new ventures). Maz had decided to finally marry Chewie and move to Corellia like they had always discussed, and the house and tea salon were left to her, Finn and Poe.

It was good, for the most part. The work kept her distracted, kept her busy. Kept her from dwelling in the realization that the week she spent in Coruscant was going to be the one thing everyone would remember her for the rest of her life. She had been in a rush to give the Lady Sabine the copy of _Miss Butterworth and the Mad Baron_ she had borrowed one day when she ran into Kaydel, who was asking her for details about the week. When Rey apologized and explained that she really needed to get going, Kaydel shrugged and said, “that’s fine. We have the rest of our lives to talk about that week.”

Which was a terrifying prospect.

So once she had enough funds to purchase her own little house just outside the main thoroughfare, with Finn and Poe and their dozen horses as her neighbors, Rey decided it was time to turn the house into rooms. She had a new sign and everything.

“Stubborn as always,” Poe shook his head, but Rey didn’t miss the fact that he was grinning at her, as was Finn. The two caught each other, though, and exchanged a private, intimate smile.

And just like that, a pang shot through Rey. Regret perhaps, or love. It was a pang that was only just started to fade, and even the notion of that love fading made her hurt more.

She really wished she could see Ben again. She hadn’t heard a word from Coruscant, not even when she visited Chewie and Maz in Corellia. Not when Rose came to Bespin Cove for three weeks. She also suspected that perhaps Finn and Poe were doing so on purpose—Poe had gone to Coruscant once or twice on business for the Marchioness, surely he had to have heard _anything_ from—

“Just what on earth do you think you’re doing up there?”

The voice was so sudden and so urgent, so angry that it jolted Rey out of her skin. The ladder shook underneath her, and she held on, fighting a wave of nausea that threatened to rise from her at the sudden movement.

“Good god! Get down here!” Ben’s voice was ferocious as he practically shoved Finn aside and held out his arms so Rey could…what? Leap into them?

“I can get down the ladder myself,” she insisted, waving his hand away. Ben looked incensed at the thought.

“Rey,” he said, as if the reasons for her not to do it should be very obvious. “You’re with child.”

“Indeed! I am with child, not an invalid!” She insisted, one hand under her still growing belly, the other on the side of the ladder as she made her way down, rung by rung. As soon as she was within reaching grasp of Ben (which because of his height, had happened in less than two steps down) he placed his hands on her waist, lifter her off the ladder and into his arms, catching her easily. Rey’s arms looped around his neck, as behind him, Poe started to clap like it was the most amusing thing he had ever seen.

“I asked only one thing from you, Dameron,” Ben whirled, and Rey had to hold on to him a little tighter as the motion made her slightly dizzy. “That you take care of her!”

“I believe I’ve done my part as well as I could, given that our charge has a particularly stubborn streak,” Poe’s perfect brow arched as Finn stood beside him.

“Just like someone else we know,” Finn added, and now that he was no longer in the employ of the Organa-Solos, could now afford to narrow his gaze at Ben.

“Clearly,” Rey announced, attempting to wriggle from Ben’s arms, but the man was giving her no quarter, and clearly had plans to carry her like a child throughout the rest of eternity. She was going to miss being able to walk on solid ground. “Lord Ben and I need to talk. And if you insist on playing pony for the afternoon, my house is that way.”

* * *

“Will you put me down?” Rey asked finally as Ben walked through the threshold of her home. It was a nice, comfortable space, much larger than Ben anticipated. A breeze blew through the sunny place, with as many plants as humanly possible stuffed inside. It looked like a magpie’s den, if magpies were fond of foliage, old furnishings and a pressed rose holding pride of place over the fire. Ben looked around the home that screamed ‘Rey’ as she eased herself slowly on the lounge seat, sighing when she realized she could not take off her shoes by herself.

He walked over and did that for her, not saying a word as he rubbed her feet. The sigh she gave him was erotic and beautiful, and he could not believe that he was actually here, in front of her. Pregnant. With _his_ child.

It staggered him. If he was not already on his knees, he definitely would have fallen.

“You can stop now,” Rey said, her voice suddenly gentle and hesitant. He released her stockinged foot and found himself sitting on the floor, looking up at her. It was like she could see right into his soul.

Oh he had missed her.

“Five months,” she managed to say, and the slight tremble in her voice was his only indication that she had not been as alright as he had expected her to be at their separation. “I heard nothing from you for five months. Did Poe tell you about…”

“He said nothing to me,” He said, holding her hand in his, as if he needed further convincing that the moment was well and truly happening. “My mother barred him, barred anyone from speaking to me about you. Insisted that if I wanted to know, I should have gone to you myself.”

“You look tired,” Rey noted, and Ben kissed the palm of her hand.

“Losing most of your land holdings and shadowing your uncle can do that to you,” Ben said sarcastically, and he felt Rey pause. He looked up at her and saw confusion in her lovely amber eyes.

“My uncle reclaimed the Dukedom,” he explained. “And as my parents are still well and living, I am the useless heir. I have been asked to shadow my uncle as a steward to his lands. I rely on an allowance from my family, and when I am not trying to keep Hux’s thoughts straight as he leads the First Order, I am with my family. I am here because I am a selfish bastard, who came to you penniless and because I could no longer wait. And now that I see you are with child, I realize that I can offer you nothing, and there is no reason for you to love me…”

“You foolish man,” Rey laughed, pressing her hands on his cheeks as tears started to stream down her cheeks. “You are the only thing I wanted. Don’t worry my love. I have enough for all three of us.”

“What could you possibly want from me, Rey?” His voice broke as he asked her, kneeling up so she didn’t put pressure on her stomach as she faced him. Rey giggled, pressing her forehead against his. It felt so lovely to have her so close, her sweet breath on him.

“I want you to love me,” she almost whispered, as her lips touched his, like an angel giving him her blessing. “With all that you have. I want you to love me with that big, beautiful—“

“Rey!”

“Heart,” she said, her lips curving into a smile. “Love us. As I love you.”

And then and there, Ben swore to keep that promise. He ended up doing exactly that, and Rey, the nobody from Jakku, was never alone again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The end! I can't believe we actually made it here! I wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone who took the time to comment, read and kudos on this little attempt at a historical romance. I really hope you enjoyed it as much as I have. 
> 
> Oh, and if you wanted to talk a little more about it, I'm on Tumblr also as @crystanagahori, so see you there!


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